RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Games and Tech Babez in Gamez #1: Orchid

The Killer Instinct series of 2D fighting games revolutionized arcade gaming with its unique combo-move mechanics, rock-paper-scissors counter-move strategies, and at the time stunning visuals. One of the most stunning of these visuals was the heroine character B. Orchid (purportedly Black Orchid shortened to fit the text field), whose design capitalized on Rare’s excellent rendering engine and for better or worse, depending on your perspective, heavily influenced the depiction of female video game characters for years to come. Sure, Orchid’s fairly implausible build made her high-flying moves even less plausible, but few gamers really seemed to care much for realism when it came to Killer Instinct’s emerald-clad temptress/asskicker…



There had been a good number of attempts to create visually appealing female characters in video games before, but it wasn’t until KI and Orchid debuted in 1994 that the graphical capabilities of arcade hardware were really up to the task. (KI1 was the first arcade cabinet with a hard drive, which allowed for pre-rendered graphics and animated backgrounds.) Prior to Orchid, when a videogame featured a pretty woman, most often the box art or game manual or feature art alongside Nintendo Power articles would consist of concept art and sketches of said pretty woman. But when Killer Instinct hit arcades, a strange phenomenon occurred. Actual screenshots (more often from the arcade version than the somewhat more pixilated SNES ‘port) of the girl in green began showing up in magazines and inside middle-school locker doors and under pubescent boys’ mattresses. Remember, this was prior to even Tomb Raider, and never before had a female video game character attracted quite as much attention.



Granted, it wasn’t all positive attention, and these were after all the early days of the Great Video Game Backlash. Mortal Kombat and MKII, whose visuals were tame by today’s standards, was being touted as a celebration of wanton violence. Killer Instinct took that violence and injected scantily-clad women of truly scandalous proportions – to be sure, a veritable buffet line of male entertainment – and then made it all available to any kid with a Super NES or a few quarters in his pocket. But as often happens in the industry, negative press concerning the game’s violence and implicit sexual content only boosted cartridge sales and arcade traffic, prompting Rare to feature Orchid more prominently with the release of Killer Instinct 2.



KI2 represented another leap forward in graphical capabilities for both arcade machines and consoles, and the digital makeover Orchid received was extensive. By this time, the Killer Instinct franchise was forced to compete with both Mortal Kombat 3 and Virtua Fighter 2. MKII and the original Virtua Fighter had competed fiercely with KI1, and this time around Rare was determined to capitalize on two of its definite advantages – a superior rendering engine (whose 2D visuals were at times more visually satisfying than VF2’s 3D visuals) and a handful of sultry digital vixens, most notably a new and improved Orchid.



Predictably, gamers fell for the girl in green all over again. Killer Instinct 2 was very successful in arcades, and after being ‘ported to the Nintendo 64, it was one of the best-selling cartridges ever released for that console. Although the arcades’ last good run was drawing to a close, and coin-op video games would soon largely be relegated to amusement parks and mini-golf joints with an occasional cluster or two in a shopping mall, the technical innovations and aesthetic standards Killer Instinct 2 brought to gaming heavily influenced the next two generations of console gaming. Orchid herself may not have broken new ground for women in video games – likely as not she pissed off quite a few feminists over the years. But the approach to female characters she represented, the craftsmanship and attention to detail devoted to making as visually appealing a character as possible, has lived on in a number of female video game characters ever since.



Orchid hasn’t been seen since KI2, but rumors have been flying for almost two years now that Killer Instinct 3 may possibly be in the works for the Xbox 360, and neither the developer nor the publisher nor Microsoft have said very much to silence the rumors. Whether she makes any further appearances or not, though, Orchid stands out as one of the most important and influential of all Babez in Gamez… not to mention one of the most attractive. So I leave you with a Killer Instinct 2 video montage of Orchid in action. Poice!

If Rare is working on a KI for 360, can they make it so it doesn't suck like some of their other recent releases? (Conker, I'm looking at YOU.)

She cleans with thorough suds.

she looks like TK's hot mom.

C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!!!!!!!

RACK Jeff Glacier!