It was originally released for arcades by Midway in October 1994, and ported to both the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game Boy the following year.

The game also introduced "auto-doubles", a feature which allows players to press a certain sequence of buttons to make characters automatically perform combos on opponents.

Killer Instinct plays like many other fighting games, in which the player controls a character to beat an opponent in a one-on-one encounter.

The game borrows the attack set of Street Fighter and is also inspired by the finishing moves from Mortal Kombat.

There are also several features that distinguish it from other franchises: Ultratech is a very powerful megacorporation which organizes a tournament called Killer Instinct.

Ultratech also discovers a technology to make bridges between dimensions, and releases a two-headed cyclops, satyr-like monster called Eyedol from his dimensional prison in Limbo.

In addition to the boss Eyedol, the game offers a roster of 10 playable characters: Black Orchid, an agent working to stop Ultratech; Chief Thunder, a Native American chief sent to look for his brother; Cinder, an escaped convict who—due to a failed chemical test—garners a body composed of flame; Fulgore, a cyborg created by Ultratech to stop Jago; Glacius, an alien abducted by Ultratech; Jago, a Tibetan warrior monk guided by the Tiger Spirit; Riptor, a velociraptor cloned by Ultratech; Sabrewulf, a man afflicted by lycanthropy; Spinal, the skeleton of an undead warrior; and T.J. Combo, a heavyweight champion boxer stripped of his title after he was discovered to be cheating with enhanced arms instead of natural ones.

According to GamePro in 2010, Killer Instinct is "remembered for its colorful cast of combatants [including] a velociraptor, a sword-wielding skeleton, a creature made out of ice, and a host of other memorable characters".

[2] In 2012, Topless Robot wrote that it features "one of the most amazing and varied cast of characters ever to grace a fighting game".

In early 1994, Nintendo signed a licensing agreement with WMS Industries, Midway's parent company, which enabled Midway to develop and market games using the early arcade-based version of the Ultra 64 platform (later to become a home console and then be renamed to Nintendo 64) and formed a joint venture company called Williams/Nintendo to market Nintendo-exclusive home conversions of these games.

To avert speculation that Killer Instinct would not be as violent as the title suggests, Nintendo's director of marketing George Harrison stated that "Williams would not have entered into this deal if they thought their hands would be tied.

He added that Nintendo believed that an industry-standard ratings system, which was expected to be in place by the time the home version was released, would make their stance against violent games no longer necessary.

Initially released in 1994, Killer Instinct's arcade-based Ultra 64 hardware is different than the home console version which would be renamed to Nintendo 64 in 1996.

The Ultra 64 arcade is a proprietary hardware platform co-developed by Rare and Midway, and created by Chris Stamper and Pete Cox.

[10] In the SNES port, many of the features found in the arcade version were altered, downgraded, or removed to fit the standard 16-bit format.

[12] The Europe, Australia, Canada, and US releases of the SNES game have black cartridge casing, instead of the standard grey shell.

As a result, neither Cinder nor Riptor are featured, and the moves were severely altered due to the more limited controls of the portable.

This port was developed by Code Mystics and published by Microsoft Studios, and includes a number of additional features, such as a new training mode, unlockable character sprite galleries and cutscenes, several visual filters, and the ability to play the game in both its original 1.4 revision and its later 1.5D revision.

[34] Next Generation reviewed the arcade version of the game and wrote that "it's not the breakthrough title we're all waiting for — and sooner a new genre has to explode.

[40] The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly were divided, with Andrew Baran commenting that "while it's a nice attempt on the Super NES, it wasn't the same" as the arcade version, whereas the other three declared it "a superb translation" which has lower quality graphics and sound than the arcade version but retains its content, playability, and overall feel.

[52] In 2009, Virgin Media ranked it as the eighth top fighting game of all time, stating that it was "most famous for having the longest combos in the business".

A new Killer Instinct, published by Microsoft and developed by Double Helix Games and Iron Galaxy Studios with input from Rare, was released as a launch title for the Xbox One in 2013.