“Killing Killer Instinct”

Las Vegas is one of the largest tourist hot spots in the world.  Its slot machines and table games attract many an adult, but entertaining the children of these players has turned into an art form.  Arcades and recreation areas allow parents to drop off their children in front of whirring machines full of buttons or laden with mallets for hours at a time while they go off and try to win the big bucks.  Unfortunately, many children are not full experts at the games they play with, hence spending more money and forcing the parents to fuel their cash squandering that often supercedes that of the suppliers.

For the many years I have been in Las Vegas, spending time in many of the hotels’ arcades to stave off boredom has been a past time that has not only taught me to economize my money but also to master several violent fighting games dominated by guys.  These two abilities do in fact coincide with one another.  In order to go through as little quarters as possible, I must fight to survive every match.  In layman’s terms, winner stays, loser pays.

As far back as I can remember, receiving money from my parents to going to play in the arcade was as routine as pulling the handle of a one-armed bandit.  Unfortunately, they expected those five dollars or so could last me a couple hours at a time.  Before I began exploring the wonders of the fighting game genre, it didn’t, and I would be back in the casino searching for them among the forests of slot machines within a matter of 45 minutes.  (That includes the time it took to walk back to the main casino.)

I have always been fond of fast paced games that made you think.  After many games of Tetris in the cheap 25 cent areas, I needed something with bloody violence, impeccable graphics, and freedom of control.  These requirements were fulfilled by Rare/Midway’s release of Killer Instinct in 1994.  I was nine years old at the time.  It didn’t take me long to master the moves and basic combos of Cinder, T.J. Combo, and Sabrewulf, three of the popular characters in the game, and after a few days of experimentation, I was already prepared for competition.  For a girl, this game was already out of my reach.  I was ready to prove that idea wrong.

In Las Vegas, I racked up winning streaks in the double digits.  Guys twice my age lined up in some attempt to defeat me.  In fact, I would often see familiar faces every five or so turns.  Two years after starting this hobby, I had hit a personal record of 32 consecutive wins, only losing to the computer as a consequence of fatigue.  It was after dozens of unsuccessful attempts to defeat Eyedol, the final boss in the game (assuming that you fought through the stages without interruption), that I had gone into a semi-retirement of the game and transitioned to a different styled series, “X-Men Children of the Atom,” that was also released in 1994.  This led to my expertise in every one of its new sequels, most notably “Marvel vs. Capcom,” where I possess my highest winning streak of any title at 47 straight victories.

I thought that beating a CPU character would be as easy as pie.  I had already defeated Apocalypse from “X-Men vs. Street Fighter” and Cyber Akuma from “X-Men vs. Marvel Superheroes.”  Onslaught from “Marvel vs. Capcom” was a breeze. Ironically, defeating Killer Instinct’s Eyedol was the only goal that I had not accomplished despite my ability to beat anybody who decided to insert their quarters into the machine.  That is, until 11:00 this evening.

For a nine year old game, it is surprising to find a perfectly working Killer Instinct machine anywhere.  In fact, the one at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino is the only working one within a three mile radius (the only other ones at Circus Circus and at Primm Valley Resort and Casino at Stateline).  When I returned to Excalibur at the beginning of this New Year’s vacation, it was still in the Wizard’s Arcade, hidden in a corner.  I pulled out a stack of quarters and returned to the good old days of combos.  People even came back to play against me, even a guy from Torrance who sold the systems himself.  I was only able to make about 20 consecutive wins, but granting that people even came back to play it, I was glad for the competition. 

It was the last game of this evening that I finally killed Eyedol using Sabrewulf, in fashionable style with a 28-hit ultra combo, ending an eight year struggle and bringing some sort of closure to my quest toward the mastery of this game.  I can finally call myself a Killer Instinct queen and re-retire in peace, if given the option to.  Of course, I’ll still be slashing with Sabrewulf, uppercutting with T.J. Combo, or raising infernos with Cinder.  The game has never lost its addictive touch and its fans.  This fan will still continue on hitting those buttons.