Characters

• Angela Belti (アンジェラ・ベルテ) – Angela is an Italian strongwoman. Although she has a very rough lifestyle and a love for heavy metal music, Angela Belti is very passionate and tends to fall in love easily. She is very tall, and very strong, even stronger than most men and as revealed in her ending, quite a bon vivant woman.
• Annie Hamilton (アニー・ハミルトン) – Born in the country of England, Annie Hamilton is a calm and compassionate woman born within a rich family. She is at times overbearing and bossy, due to her spoiled upbringing. However she loves animals, and currently has six dogs, four cats, three horses and a turtle named Kensington.
• Keith Wayne (キース・ウェイン) – Keith is a playboy who likes to flirt with women, which is one of the reasons that he enters the Gōketsuji tournament. Eventually, he met Annie Hamilton, who became the love of his life and since then, he has been determined to prove that he's the right guy for her.
• Otane Gōketsuji (豪血寺お種, Gōketsuji Otane) – As a child, Otane was constantly berated and abused by her older sister, Oume, and was neglected by her own mother, Oshima, due to her unwillingness to fight back. After many years of facing Oume's abuse, Otane decided to leave home at the age of 15 with only one thing on mind: train endlessly so that one day, she could beat Oume and prove that she is a worthy leader of the Gōketsuji clan.
• Oume Gōketsuji (豪血寺お梅, Gōketsuji Oume) – Oume, like her younger sister Otane, is a superhuman. To master her mysterious attacks, she confined herself to the mountains. Moreover, she has an eerie and unearthly presence about her and it is rumored that she can turn her opponents to stone just by gazing into their eyes.
• Reiji Oyama (大山礼児, Ōyama Reiji) – Reiji is a very straightforward and honest Japanese fighter and is the ultimate training fanatic. He does not do well with minute details, but excels at physical strength matches. He works part-time for a construction company to exert his excess energy. He is somewhat a parody of Ryu from Street Fighter and many other karate warriors like Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia from Art of Fighting.
• Saizo Hattori (破鳥才蔵, Hattori Saizō) – Saizo is a dark ninja who keeps his emotions hidden. He normally hides behind a ninja mask to avoid the contact with others, although on some occasions, his part-time job requires him to appear on stage in an animal costume.
• Thin Nen (陳念, Chin Nen) – Thin Nen is a violent Shaolin monk with obscene desires. This religious man studied ancient rituals to gain mystic powers and will do everything to get what he wants, whether it be women, food or money.
• White Buffalo (ホワイト・バッファロー) – White Buffalo is a Native American who tries to protect the rights of his people at all costs. A man of few words, he appreciates the little things in life.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Power Instinct on their January 1, 1994 issue as being the most-successful table arcade unit of the month.^[1] Reviewing the Super NES version, GamePro judged that "Power Instinct falls along the lines of Fatal Fury, but it falls short." They praised the double jumps and special moves, but criticized the "passable" graphics and sound and the fact that the boss is just a palette swap of a playable character.^[2] A reviewer for Next Generation said the game has "average graphics, decent play control, and moves you've mostly seen before. ... Nothing wrong here, it's just typical." He gave the Super NES version two out of five stars.^[3]

New characters

• Oshima Gōketsuji (豪血寺お志摩, Gōketsuji Oshima) – Known to be the matriarch of the entire Gōketsuji clan, Oshima Gōketsuji is known for her strict policies and precise personality to make her clan the strongest throughout the entire world. She's the mother of both Otane and Oume Gōketsuji and often favors Oume over Otane, due to the fact that Oume takes up most of her own personality traits.
• Kurara Hananokouji (花小路クララ, Hananokōji Kurara) – A magical witch who uses her special powers and magical wand for her own benefits, Kurara Hanakouji seeks to have much fun and excitement during her travels throughout the world. Even though she looks like a 15-year-old, Kurara's exact age is unknown. When she gains enough power from a fight, she can change into her alter-ego, Super Kurara (a woman who wears roller-skates while fighting in scantily-clad clothing). In Matrimelee, her name is changed to Clara. She also stars in her own spin-off game, Purikura Daisakusen, and appears as an unlockable character in the PlayStation version of Heaven's Gate, another Atlus fighting game.
• Kanji Kokuin (孤空院干滋, Kokuin Kanji) – An old man who is the ex-husband of Oume Gōketsuji, Kanji Kokuin now seeks to defeat the members of the Gōketsuji clan so that he can gain full control over the clan. He starts the battle off with his pumped-up muscles, but if he fails from within the initiation of his super move, he loses his strength and turns into a prickly man who only fights with his walking cane.
• Kintaro Kokuin (弧空院金田朗, Kokuin Kintarō) – A young kindergartner who is the grandson of Haruki, Kanji Kokuin's younger brother, Kinta Kokuin is known for being an obnoxious brat who takes up most of his grandfather's personality traits and that he won't stop until he gets what he wants. He fights in the tournament in order to impress a girl that he likes and he uses the assistance of his pets (a huge fish and a bear) to aid him. When he gains enough strength from within a fight, Kinta can transform into his alter-ego, Pochi (a man wearing a dog costume who fights by throwing power bones at the opponent).
• Sahad Asran Ryuto (サハド・アスラーン・リュート) – An Arabian man who uses both his fighting skills and the power of the djinn from a magic lamp. Sahad's goal is to not only test out his abilities in battle, but to also impress Angela Belti, upon whom he has a crush.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Power Instinct 2 on their November 1, 1994 issue as being the third most-successful table arcade unit of the month.^[4] On release, Famicom Tsūshin scored the PlayStation version of the game a 23 out of 40.^[5]

New characters

• Larry Light (ラリー・ライト) – A brilliant and optimistic man good with cultural conversations, Larry finds true happiness as more important than wealth or power. Larry's partner is Chris Wayne, a conflictual young man. He once helped Chris from being arrested for vandalism. Since then, Larry has been Chris's tutor and best friend. After losing against Oume in the previous Goketsuji finals five years ago, Larry received another invitation for a new tag battle tournament signed by Oume.
• Chris Wayne (クリス・ウェイン) – An extremely violent boy and leader of a powerful gang in the Bronx, New York, Chris is able to hurt anyone at the drop of a hat. He often has troubles with his parents Keith and Annie due to his bad behavior. To distance from them, he accompanied his professor and friend Larry in his journey. Chris had told his parents that the journey was for "educational purposes". Chris eagerly joins Larry to join the new Goketsuji tournament.
• Sujiroku Tenjinbashi (天神橋筋六, Tenjinbashi Sujiroku) - The eldest son of the Tenjinbashi family chairman. When his father died, he took over the role of leader at a very young age. His family had ties to the Japanese Yakuza connected to the Goketsuji Family, but Sujiroku has no interest in their business. He wants to enjoy celebrating in festivals and participating in as many Japanese cultural events, traveling with a lion mask and drumsticks. In one festival, he met a young man who respected his work in preserving Japanese culture and proposed to join him in a martial arts tag tournament as his partner.
• Hizumi Yukinoue (雪上火澄, Yukinoue Hizumi) – A young man obsessed with ninjas, a trait he got from his father. He is also fan of video games, manga, anime, and collecting soda cans. In fact, all of his fighting techniques are based on characters from various anime series, and he based his hair style on a character from a manga. While attending a summer festival, he met the master of ceremonies, and both felt mutual respect over their love of Japanese traditions. Hizumi told Sujiroku about a pending tournament and suggested that he be his partner to propagate the beauty of Japanese culture.
• Solis R8000 (ソーリス=R8000) - A young police woman from the year 2115, Solis investigates the activities of a powerful organization suspected of tampering past events for its convenience. Thus she discovered that this organization was responsible for the disappearance of important families and financial groups 100 years ago; among these the Goketsuji Clan. Learning that she was a Goketsuji descendant, Solis travels back to the year 2015 to prevent the destruction of her clan. During the travel, her time machine malfunctioned and set her in a different time period where she met a mysterious scientist named Max Ax Dax. Solis asked Max if he could help her to repair her machine.
• M.A.D. – A mysterious scientist whose real name is Max Ax Dax, his lab was located near the place where Solis's time machine crashed. He volunteered to fix the machine while Solis had contacted the Goketsuji twins, who invited her to the new tag tournament. When Solis asks M.A.D. to be her partner, he accepts: a perfect way for him to get more experimental guinea pigs.
• Popura Hanakouji (花小路ポプラ, Hanakōji Popura) – Kurara's daughter, and a magical witch just like her mother. Popura has learned from her mother all of her magic tricks and fighting techniques. Her father has been traveling since she was a baby. Wishing to see her father, Popura decided to travel around the world with the hope to find him while bringing her father's gift for her: a very special teddy bear. After Kurara has mentioned her participation on a prestigious tournament, Popura invited her fellow magical classmate Remi as her partner to join the tournament. If she wins, it might be one step closer to finding her father.
• Remi Otogiri (乙霧レミ, Otogiri Remi) – The only daughter of a high class family with a deep hidden secret: they are descendants of an evil witch. Her calm and classy demeanor made her one of the most popular students in her school, motivated to show the power of music. She also met her classmate Popura there, who also has magical powers, whom she became best friends quickly. After hearing about the adventures of Popura's mother, Popura invites Remi to the tournament as her partner. If they win, that would earn her enough money to hold concerts around the world and help the poor.
• Falco (ファルコ)– An old man, expert at any kind of table game like cards or mahjong. Falco met the Goketsuji twins at Otane's casino, where he won against Oume in a poker game. Bitter at her loss, Oume attacked Falco but he was able to read through Oume's moves. Impressed by his skills, the twins employed Falco as their partner in the new Goketsuji tournament.
• Rudolph Gartheimer (ルドルフ・ガルテイマー) – A ruthless man feared by everyone who knew him. The only person who has seen his tender side is his young servant, Damian. Once part of the Goketsuji clan, his family fell of the graces of Oume and were subsequently banished from the clan. The Gartheimers lost everything. However, his family recovered their wealth eventually but Rudolph still held great hatred for the Goketsujis especially Oume. He seeks to win the tournament to grab the family fortune and destroy the Goketsuji clan.
• Damian Shade (ダミアン・シェード)– Rudolph's servant, secret lover and tag team partner, although he never gets the opportunity to fight, being shot by Bristol as soon as Rudolph is defeated. Damian was an orphan adopted by the Gartheimer family. With time, he became a very special person to his master, Rudolph. Damian is a pacifist and abhors violence, but his personality totally changes if somebody injures Rudolph. His ability enables him to heal a living being through his touch. The Saturn version of the game allows Damian to fight, as a secret character.
• Bristol Weller (ブリストル・ウェラー) – Born from a family of aristocrats, Bristol grew into a very intelligent and shrewd hypocrite. Since a young age he achieved a good social status and has received several awards for his charity activities, but all of this is a merely a front for his heartless ambitions. Even with his success as a Gartheimer company partner, Bristol had entered a pact with demons to rain destruction and exterminate anyone and anything to get what he wants.
• Bristol-D (ブリストル-D) – After Bristol has been beaten once, his true identity is revealed as Bristol-D, a vampire and demon summoner. He captures and brainwashes your partner into a sickly blue-skinned hue, forcing him/her to fight alongside him. To make sure that chaos reigns in the world, he has the power to create portals to summon demons from the underworld. These armies of darkness are in fact characters from Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei franchise.

Gameplay

Gameplay is in a 2-on-2 format much like Legends, but with the ability to tag in and out at any time between players, similar to X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Whenever the player tags successfully between characters, the character who is on the sidelines slowly begins to get his or her energy back.

A big difference from the previous games is that Groove on Fight has a six buttons system. The two new buttons are for "Dodge" and for the "Powerful Blow", but are also used for stronger versions of special moves. the "Dodge" allows the characters to evade attacks and then counterattack the opponent. The "Powerful Blow" is an attack that inflicts more damage to the opponent than the normal strong attacks, but is also slower. The special guard and the shadow moves from Gogetsuji Legends are still present in the game and some other new characteristics were introduced to the gameplay:

New characters

• Buntaro Kuno (久野文太郎, Kuno Buntarō) – A delinquent schoolboy who enters the tournament to meet his idol, Reiji Oyama.
• Shintaro Kuno (久野慎太郎, Kuno Shintarō) – Buntaro's younger brother and also a delinquent schoolboy, he enters the tournament to defeat his brother.
• Hikaru Jomon (城門光, Jōmon Hikaru) – A tomboy student who fights with a cane and enters the tournament to prove she is the best fighter.
• Olof Linderoth (オロフ・リンデロート) – Princess Sissy's bodyguard, who demands him to enter the tournament to test himself.
• Princess Sissy (プリンセス・シシー) – The Princess of Certain Country, trained to be the successor of the throne.