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Killer Instinct gets Babylonian sorcerer Kan-Ra next week

And reptilian Riptor is next.

Xbox One fighting game Killer Instinct gets a new playable character on Monday, 24th November.

Kan-Ra, a Babylonian sorcerer cursed to rot after a failed assassination attempt on his king over 2000 years ago, joins the roster of playable characters in Killer Instinct: Season 2. He focuses on ranged attacks and air-based traps.

Those who own Season 2 Ultra Edition get Kan-Ra on Monday. Combo Breaker purchasers have to wait until Sunday, 30th November.

TJ Combo and Maya are already available. Microsoft said additional Season 2 characters will be released on a monthly basis until the season ends in spring 2015. The trailer, below, shows Kan-Ra in action before teasing the next character: Riptor.

Cover image for YouTube videoKilller Instinct Kan-Ra Trailer

Meanwhile, Microsoft answered a few long-standard Killer Instinct-related questions on the Ultra Combo website, which are worth exploring here.

Recently a video showing a prototype for an Xbox 360 version of Killer Instinct was published on YouTube. You can check it out below.

"We explored the idea of KI on 360," creative director Adam Isgreen admitted.

"But the time to build and maintain it while working on the Xbox One version was a non-zero resource impact, so we decided not to continue development of it."

Then there's the issue of arcade sticks. You can't use Xbox 360 arcade sticks with the Xbox One. Why?

"I fought very hard for this feature before we launched X1, but because of the new security protocols, it wasn't possible to maintain direct support," Isgreen said.

"There may be options coming soon from partners that could help bridge the gap."

(We explored this issue in some detail in an feature on PlayStation 4, the Xbox One and steering wheel peripherals.)

Elsewhere, Season 2 story mode will arrive with the last major Season 2 update, but there's an update coming for the Season 1 story mode that will be in-game before the end of 2014.

Cover image for YouTube videoKiller Instinct 2013 Xbox 360 Prototype Build