I honestly have a hard time believing that you don't have any I about Killer Instinct, considering how well the game did in the US and UK. But hey, it makes for interesting conversation....
I thought that the game looked incredible back in the day (besides Orchid, who just looked strange with that deformed boxy chest of hers), with the pre-rendered characters and backgrounds. It had a very unique look to it, and had a play style similar to both Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.
To this day, I still never really liked the combo system - it simply allowed for too many players to take advantage of an infinite juggle with a couple of the characters in the game. If you were caught in the air with a combo, that was it, you're dead. You couldn't break the combo if you wanted to. But again, the game was very pretty, and the music was pretty decent too.
I'd personally play Samurai Shodown 2 or Mortal Kombat 2 over Killer Instinct from that era, but that's my personal tastes.