Thrill Kill
| Thrill Kill | |
|---|---|
 European cover art | |
| Developer | Paradox Development |
| Publisher | Virgin Interactive |
| Producers |
|
| Designer | Benjamin Kutcher |
| Programmer | Peter Jefferies |
| Artist | Paul Interrante |
| Writer | Brian Gomez |
| Composer | Keith Arem |
| Platform | PlayStation |
| Release | Cancelled |
| Genre | Fighting |
| Modes | Single-player, multiplayer |
Thrill Kill is a cancelled fighting game developed by Paradox Development for the PlayStation. Originally intended to be released in 1998, the game's plot involves ten people who all get sent to Hell after dying on Earth and are forced by Marukka, the Goddess of Secrets, to fight to the death for a chance at reincarnation. It was marketed as the first four-player 3D fighting game, with up to four players being able to play at once using the PlayStation Multitap. Each player is given a "kill meter" that increases with each successful attack and, once filled, executes a gory finishing move called a "Thrill Kill".
Thrill Kill began development as Earth Monster, a sports game based on the Mesoamerican ballgame in which characters attacked one another as they tried to get a ball into a hoop. As the developers were repeatedly pushed by publisher Virgin Interactive to make the game more violent, Earth Monster's concept was scrapped in favor of an adult-oriented, BDSM-themed fighting game. During development, the game gained a large following for its overtly sexual and gory content, and received one of the first-ever "Adults Only" (AO) ratings from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), also becoming the first game to receive the rating for its violence.
Reviews of the beta version of Thrill Kill considered it fun but unfinished. The game was scheduled to be released by Virgin Interactive in October 1998; however, Electronic Arts gained the publishing rights upon purchasing Virgin's North American operations in August of that year, and chose not to release the game or sell it to other publishers due to its graphic content. Bootleg versions of the game were uploaded to pirating websites, and it became especially popular as a downloaded ISO. Following its cancellation, Thrill Kill was reskinned to develop the 1999 Activision game Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style, also developed by Paradox, who went on to use the Thrill Kill engine in several of their other games.