retrospectively, "killer instinct" was ranked as the 148th best game made on any nintendo system by "nintendo power" in 2006, as well as the 95th on a similar list by "official nintendo magazine" in 2009. in platform-specific retro lists, it was also ranked as the 19th and 38th best snes game of all time by screwattack and gamesradar respectively, and as the 13th best arcade game of the 1990s by "complex".