Killer Instinct is a fighting game developed by Rare, Midway and Nintendo. Initially released in arcades in 1994, and rumored to use an "Ultra 64" hardware engine, in reality the proprietary arcade hardware was co-developed by Rare and Midway. The game received a high profile launch on the Super Nintendo, as well as on the Game Boy. It led to a sequel, Killer Instinct 2.
The game borrows the attack set of Street Fighter and is also inspired by the finishing moves from Mortal Kombat. Killer Instinct was a great addition the the fighting game genre. It featured a really creative auto-combo system as well as some of the best graphics of it's time period. Killer Instinct truly stands out as one of Rare's legenday franchises.
Fast forward over a decade later and rumors have been surfacing that a new Killer Instinct is indeed in the the works over at Microsoft games studios. The rumors stem from various sources: EGM's quartermann, a Christmas card sent by Rare with a KI3 stocking on it and many more. With all the rumors floating around it looks as if Xbox 360 gamers may be receiving a real gem of a fighting game sometime in the future.