Thrill Kill
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| Thrill Kill | |
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| Developer(s) | Paradox Development |
| Publisher(s) | Virgin Interactive |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation |
| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | Arcade, Versus, Practice & team |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: AO18+ (un-edited) ESRB: M17+ (edited) |
| Media | CD-ROM |
Thrill Kill is a cancelled 1998 fighting video game for the Sony PlayStation, which even today is still widely available despite being officially unpublished. Thrill Kill was considered a technical feat for the PlayStation for allowing four players to fight simultaneously in the same room, although this technical feat was overshadowed by the brutality and controversy surrounding the game. Set in an urban version of Hell, the characters were all damned souls fighting for another chance in the mortal world, watched over by Marukka the Goddess of Secrets, who has organized the infernal tournament and promised the winner reincarnation on Earth. Other content included revealing BDSM and fetishistic costumes, characters with amputated limbs and other handicaps and violent and sexual moves with names such as "Bitch Slap", "Swallow This", and "Head Muncher".
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[edit] History and controversy
Thrill Kill was developed in the late 1990s for the Sony PlayStation by Paradox Development, now Midway Studios - Los Angeles. There was much hype surrounding the game, billed as the new Mortal Kombat, and expectations were high in the gaming community. The original publisher was to be Virgin Interactive, before Virgin Interactive was acquired by Electronic Arts Pacific for £122,500,000 in the late summer of 1998.
By this point Thrill Kill had already finished development in entirety, and a Californian-based industrial metal band, Contagion[1], had even recorded numerous songs and an entire score for the game. A few weeks before shipping, the game was cancelled by EA because they didn't want to "publish such a senselessly violent game", as they felt that it would harm their image. They also stated that they deemed the game so offensive that they would not even attempt to sell the game to be released by another publisher either.
Later, former employees that had worked on the game released the full game onto the internet, along with various beta versions, and bootlegs of the game flooded the market and were still seen by a large share of its original intended audience nevertheless. All files are still widely available through filesharing, and playable through emulators.
[edit] Gameplay
Gameplay consisted of a closed 3D room where up to four opponents would fight to the death, and proceed to finish each other off with Thrill Kills, much like the fatalities of Mortal Kombat. However the characters, because they are already dead, cannot be physically injured, although they audibly feel the pain of attacks, and blood is still present. Every attack made will result in a character's bloodlust to rise. Instead of the usual life bar, characters build up a "kill meter". Once this meter was full, and therefore bloodlust at its strongest, a player's character would be electrocuted to give them superhuman strength enabling a Thrill Kill move to brutally slay an opponent, depending on what button was pressed upon grabbing someone.
[edit] Plot
Eight damned souls have died and descended into Hell. This modern-day Hell is based on the real world of today's deviants. The characters are the physical manifestations of their mental illnesses or vices on earth. Marukka, the Goddess of Secrets, is bored of her usual routine and decides that it would be fun to pit them all against each other in a fighting tournament with the prize being reincarnation. Each character is battling for nothing more than self-preservation and the hope of being reborn.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Belladonna
A housewife and librarian from Savannah, Georgia, who, after discovering that her husband was having an affair with her sister, snapped and transformed into a deadly dominatrix, murdering them both. She is armed with an electric cattle prod. She died after committing suicide by electrocuting herself with her cattle prod while taking a bath, which was reported as being "accidental". She is the most sexually themed character of the game, and, consequentially, was considerably altered in the censored version; her orgasm-like moans were replaced with Violet's giggle, and her third Thrill Kill was removed, in which she appears to perform oral sex on her opponent, only for the camera to reveal that she is merely tickling their foot with a feather.
[edit] Cleetus
A murderous redneck cannibal from Kentucky who fights with a severed leg of one of his past victims. He starved to death after contracting a tapeworm infestation. Aside from Belladonna, he is the only other character who was noticeably changed in the censored version of the game; his taunt and win pose, in which he bites into the severed leg he carries, was replaced from having blood spraying out of it and the sound effect of ripping flesh to him saying "yummy", with the blood and sound effect removed.
[edit] Dr. Faustus
A deranged plastic surgeon from Los Angeles, California, who intentionally disfigured many of his patients. He is armed with a scalpel and has a set of metal "jaws" attached to his own face that resembles a bear trap, which he also uses to attack with. He died from an infection caused by the grafting of said contraption onto his face.
[edit] The Imp
A violent midget government employee with a Napoleon complex from Albany, New York, who is supported by stilts. He died from complications after amputating both his legs to replace them with the stilts.
[edit] Mammoth
A gigantic, feral, ape-like creature who was previously a human postal worker from Covington, Indiana, nicknamed "Mammoth" due to his large size. After he was fired from his job, he flew into a rage and killed many of his colleagues and customers in a bloody rampage. He died from committing suicide afterwards by shooting himself.
[edit] Oddball
An FBI criminal profiler from Belfast, Maine, who, after a long time of tracking serial killers, was driven insane and became one himself. His costumes feature him bound in straitjackets, having his arms tied behind his back, or with them amputated altogether, and so he relies on using his head, torso and legs to attack. He died after being gunned down by his protégé.
[edit] Tormentor
A sadistic vigilante judge from Phoenix, Arizona, who is armed with a chain. He was executed on the electric chair after being found guilty of acquitting criminals in his court so that he could secretly torture and murder them himself.
[edit] Violet
The youngest playable character in the game. A teenage traveling circus contortionist from Austria, who developed a hatred for men after killing a man that attacked her in her dressing room after one of her performances. She died from internal injuries after her spinal cord was ruptured.
[edit] The Gimp
Unlockable "training dummy" only available in Practice mode. Like his name suggests, he is a masochistic gimp. He is unplayable.
[edit] Cain
One of the eariler unlockable sub-bosses. A pyromaniac covered in flames, who has the ability to conjure fire.
[edit] Judas
One of the later unlockable sub-bosses. Deformed conjoined twins at the sternum, without any legs. One of the upper halves simply "walk" on their hands whilst the other upper half fights.
[edit] Marukka
The final unlockable character and final boss of the game in one player mode. A demonic female deity from a dimension in Hell who was responsible for the organization of the tournament. She cannot be played in Arcade mode.
[edit] Reception
The controversy surrounding the game raised the interest of Thrill Kill in the gaming community greatly, helping bootleg copies of the game to become very common. In their September 2004 issue, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine cited Thrill Kill as one of the most overrated cancelled games, stating "It got lots of hype. But it really sucked, too."[2]
[edit] Legacy
The Thrill Kill engine was later used in numerous other games. It was used to make Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style (released on October 31, 1999 by Activision) a game based on the rap group Wu-Tang Clan. While violent, Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style had less objectionable content than Thrill Kill, and was poorly received. The Thrill Kill engine was later used in two-player form for X-Men: Mutant Academy (released on July 11, 2000 by Activision), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (released on September 17, 2001 by Activision) and Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots Arena (released on November 30, 2000 by Mattel).
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.myspace.com/contagionpcb
- ^ OPM staff (September 2004). "Overrated/Underrated" (SWF transcript). Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine
