Thrill Kill was a fighting game for the Sony PlayStation that was going to be released in October 1998. The game was going to be published by Virgin Interactive and developed by Paradox Entertainment. The game was very ambitious for being the first ever fighting game to feature 4 characters on-screen, and thus, it was the first Fatal-4-Way fighting game ever made.
Plot/Gameplay[]
The game focuses on 8 to 10 fighters who have originally died and have been banished to hell, and the only way to become reincarnated is to battle each other out of hell.
The most ambitious feature about the game was that rather than having a health bar for each of the 4 fighters on-screen, each fighter had a "Kill Meter", which could be filled up by simply inflicting damage to any of the opposing fighters. When fully maxed out, the fighter has to grab one of the other live fighters before the "Kill Meter" drains back to the zero, and the fighter had to redo the entire process all over again.
Controversy and Censorship[]
Due to the graphic, sexual and violent content, Thrill Kill was the first ever game to receive an AO rating from the ESRB, which SCEA and other major console manufacturers did (and still to this day do) not allow. As a result, a toned down version was made, in which it was awarded an M by the ESRB, with characters who wore thongs now wearing briefs, and several sound effects for certain characters were changed (Belladonna now laughs instead of moans, and Cleetus says "Yummy!" when biting his severed weaponized leg).
Why It Was Cancelled[]
- Virgin Interactive‘s North American operations were acquired by Electronic Arts two weeks before printing and shipping the game. EA then immediately cancelled the title and claimed that they "wouldn't publish such a senselessly violent game" and that it "would harm their image".
Result[]
- Although the game was cancelled, the full game and several beta versions of the game became widely available on the internet after cancellation, and the game had gained a cult-following as a result. In addition, several concept art and various custom cover-art are also available on the internet.
- The engine the game used was later re-used for the spiritual yet less-objectionable successor Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style (Wu-Tang: Taste the Pain in the UK and Australia), and other titles that Paradox Entertainment worked on such as Rock'em Sock'Em Robots Arena and X-Men Mutant Academy 1 and 2.
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