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Power Instinct

What? Killer Instinct? A Street Fighter Clone? No Way!

Yeah I was confused too, but we aren't talking about Rare's much-loved fighter Killer Instinct. This is Power Instinct, a fighting game that I had never heard of up until about a week ago. Released in 1993, it was developed by Atlus, of all companies. It may not be one of their signature RPGs, but it certainly wears their influence on its sleeve. It's difficult to tell how serious its trying to be, it doesn't shy away from its Japanese roots, it's far more popular in its native country, etc. But do all of those quirks that make Atlus RPGs so endearing do the same for a 2D fighter? And what does any of this have to do with being a Street Fighter Clone?

First, I think we need to back up and define just what constitutes a Street Fighter clone, or at least what I am defining as a Street Fighter Clone. It's a phrase that's thrown around quite a bit, but not one I've ever seen defined. After spending the last week or so thinking entirely too much about it, I settled on the following:

-It must be a 2D fighting game that came out after Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, the first title in the SFII series. (1991)

-It lacks excessive, over-the-top gore or fatalities. If it has any of that stuff, it's probably a Mortal Kombat Clone.

-It's special moves are performed through D-Pad/Joystick rotations or charging rather than button combos.

-It does not have a specific, command based combo system (Think Mortal Kombat 3 or the aforementioned Killer Instinct)

-There is no block button, you hold back on the D-Pad/joystick while your opponent is attacking to block.

Lastly, there's the obligatory "you know it when you see it" caveat.

Power Instinct certainly checks off all those boxes. You only have two of each type of attack rather than three, but otherwise the control scheme essentially apes SFII's.  It isn't nearly as tight or responsive and I did occasionally have trouble getting the special moves to work, but it was closer to good than bad. The characters walk a little bit slower, but the sprites are much bigger so that's to be expected. The only other difference I noticed are the double jumps, each character can jump twice and there is a bit of an air combat element, but I never found it to really come into play. The hit detection here is okay, again it's not perfect but I have played much, much worse.

The overall presentation is...interesting. The graphics are adequate, no better, no worse. The character sprites are big, colorful and detailed, but the character design didn't really do it for me. Aside from Angela and Otane, none of them stand out in any meaningful way, these guys could have been in any game, anywhere, anytime. Stereotypical cocky American guy in jeans and a tank top, stereotypical Japanese martial arts master, stereotypical Shaolin monk, stereotypical ninja, you get the idea. Only Angela, a strongwoman who fills the Zangief role as a big slow bruiser, and Otane, who the game very clearly establishes as the main character, have any sort of interesting design. Not necessarily good, but interesting. Otane, for the record, is a septuagenarian who possesses some sort of magical powers that allow her to drain the energy of her foes. This allows her to temporarily fight as a younger version of herself. Again, interesting, but her whole schtick is just...weird. I actually like the idea of the feeble old lady draining the life force out of her opponents. But it kills the vibe when she wins a round and throws up the devil horns like she's at a Judas Priest concert or something. 

The stage designs are okay at best, a lot of them don't have very much to look at. Everything is technically proficient, but boring. Only the graveyard stage stands out and even that isn't that great. The sound is similarly weak, not a single one of the stages has a memorable sound to it. The character select and continue screens certainly do, but for all the wrong reasons. I get that Atlus is trying to do Atlus things and this game is not supposed to be super serious, but these tracks are just bizarre. I can't even begin to describe what they sound like and I don't feel like looking them up, but just trust me, they really don't fit. 

The biggest issue with Power Instinct though isn't the presentation. It's priority. I am not going to try and explain what priority is or how exactly it works, but it's a critical part of any fighting game and it's really unbalanced here. There are a lot of moves that will just straight up cancel anything you try and do, particularly Otane's Shoryuken-esque attack. At least it's fair, you can do the same thing to the computer, but once you know what stops what, you can just win without any resistance. That isn't any fun at all. It's not so bad it's gamebreaking, but it just makes you wish you were playing Street Fighter.

And that is the case with so many of these games. Power Instinct isn't bad by any means, but it isn't particularly good either. The wonky priority and general lack of inspiration make it not worth really worth playing today. Maybe the later games in the series are better, but this one just doesn't do enough to differentiate itself from Street Fighter or any of its other contemporaries.

6.5/10


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