Angry Gaming 03.12.07: An Ode to Thrill Kill

Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 03.12.2007

It’s the greatest game we never played. Download sources inside.

Welcome to Angry Gaming, where we shoot the gaming industry with 100 untraceable bullets. I am your hate master, Damian Sarcuni, and I now know how to do an anaconda choke. They see me rollin'…

An Ode to Thrill Kill



I believe I've already gone over the fact that I dislike retro reviews in the course of this column. With all the recent and upcoming action games being released (Gears of War, Crackdown, Manhunt 2, etc.) however, I found myself looking back at some of the points in video game history when violence on console games started take a deeper, darker turn. Of course Mortal Kombat and Time Killers comes to mind, as well shooters like Resident Evil 4. But somewhere in nestled in the violent video game history books is a game that some have only heard of, and others didn't even know existed.

The game I speak of is Thrill Kill, which was designed for the original Sony Playstation console. Originally, Thrill Kill was due to be published by the Virgin Interactive group, but was cancelled when Electronic Arts purchased the company. That was a real shame because developers Paradox Development were more or less finished with the game at the time it was cancelled. In fact, the cancellation frustrated the group so much that they began distributing the game independently and on the internet.

So why was Thrill Kill cancelled in the first place? The answer is simple: violence. EA had no intention of publishing a game with the level of violence Thrill Kill was offering. And trust me that this game did take violence to a whole new level, one that we have not seen before of after the game's release. Oh sure, it was just a fighter with a bunch of characters who had a few fatalities each, but that wasn't what gave the game its appeal. If any parent had seen Thrill Kill at the time of its due release, they would have thought the game had been forged in the fires of hell itself. On some level, I can see their point.

I just can't keep Thrill Kill to myself though. There is a serious gap in generations and accepted violence among video games, a hole that only Thrill Kill can fill. Gamers really need to know about this game, know that its available, and really experience it before we can make any judgement about other games and their levels of darkness and hedonism. It's time for a Thrill Kill history lesson, one that we can use to set a new bar for our definitions of violence and mayhem. The game isn't shocking or scary, it's art. Take it for what it is, and I think you'll have a whole new appreciation for the works of art already sitting in your latest generation console of choice.


The Story



The story behind Thrill Kill is…well, a bit confusing. There's two ways to look at the game, either by going with what was jotted down into Paradox's potential instruction manual for the game, or by going with the content of the game itself. Personally I go with the story based on what I saw in the actual game, but I'll go over the instruction manual first prior to my version of the story.

According to the manual, 8 fighters have died and gone to hell, each one representing a vice on earth. Marukka, a demon of secrets, decides to pit all these fighters against each other with the prize being resurrection onto the earth.



That's all well and good, but given the various stages and character costumes in the game, I have trouble believing the story isn't far deeper than that. So here's what I came up with: several of the stages appear to be a psych ward, and two of the characters appear in surgeons and nurses uniforms. Several other characters appear to be inmates of this psych ward, and all of these characters seem to have made a pact with the devil to gain ultimate power by battling one another.

The characters each have their own particular gimmicks and flare. Belladonna is a dominatrix, Cleetus is a cannibal, Dr. Faustus is a mad surgeon, The Imp seems to be a gimp, Mammoth is an experiment gone wrong, Oddball is a killer in a straight jacket, Tormentor is a sadist, and Violet is a contortionist. There are also three boss characters, Cain, Judas, and Marukka. Cain controls fire, Judas is two torso halves combined (one of his costumes is Ken and Ryu combined, which is highly amusing) and Marukka is just a really powerful demon.


Gameplay



The game is a fighter that uses an every man for him self 4 player system. There was quite a bit of strategy involved in the game as players could knock opponents up or down, close or away, strategically. In addition to having some of the nastiest and most sexually explicit special moves ever seen in a fighting game, Thrill Kill's atmosphere was what really made it special, and it came into play during gameplay. See, in Thrill Kill, you don't just beat your opponents up until they die. Instead, the object of fighting each other is to build up your "rage" meter, which allows you to perform a Thrill Kill. A Thrill Kill is a fatality. Once your meter is built all the way up, lighting strikes and a demonic laughter gives you enough power to take your opponent in one hit (grab them and perform a Thrill Kill). When one fighter is killed, three remain, another builds up a Thrill Kill, lather rinse repeat.



When the battle finally comes down to one on one, the game gets all the deeper. In addition to the usual laughter and lightning, players performing a Thrill Kill on their final opponent are also treated to a soft, evil chanting of the words "Thrill Kill" as they approach their opponent. This is followed by a last one hit Thrill Kill that is far more detailed and nastier than any of the quick ones performed on the first two unsuspecting victims. The game continues like this from evil, dark arena to evil, dark arena. There is a constant air of danger in the game, and a sense of being trapped in the very confines of a hellish place. This is what gets me about Thrill Kill so much. The game wasn't just violent. It was evil. Yes it lacked a real Satan which I have complained about in the past, but tossing the instruction manual out the window one could easily see the evil and hellish references throughout the game.


How to Get It



Although Thrill Kill was widely distributed amidst the underground (I'll never forget a certain privately owned game store which we dubbed "Crazy Ho Fat's" that got us the game) today it is not quite so easy to play. Even if you do get your hands on a burned copy of the game, its not easy to play on a modified PS2, and even an original Playstation needs a mod chip to run the game also. The game can be run on the PSP using outdated firmware, so that option still exists, but probably the best way to do it is to play the game on PSX emulation software for your PC.

Once again, Angry Gaming is here to hook you all up, at least a little. Rather than go on about the game in a pathetic attempt to make this article longer, I'll give you the opportunity to get your hands on the game itself. There are two ways to get your hands on Thrill Kill:

1) Visit http://www.thrillkill.tk/ and click on "I want Thrill Kill!" near the top of the page, which will link you to a list of several torrent links and download programs helping you to get the game.

2) Shoot me an email using the link below. I have a downloaded copy of the game and will respond with a link using one of those download hosting sites, usually within 48 hours.

And for those of you wondering, this isn't piracy. Thrill Kill was never officially released and we're not responsible for what the developers did anyway. Of course, the game was never rated and it obviously should be rated M for mature, so if your into censoring stuff like this from your kids, please do.


The Anger

They just don't make ‘em like they used to. Actually, in the case of Thrill Kill, they never did. When I look at all the things that pass with an M rating in video games today, I really wonder what made Electronic Arts so nervous about releasing Thrill Kill. The game was honestly pretty damn innovative, not just shocking. This is one of the few games I've seen that truly fell victim to the powers that be, and thank God the game's creators were good enough to share the game with the world anyway. Enjoy Thrill Kill. I know I do.