Remember The Demented 1998 Video Game THRILL KILL That Was Never Officially Released Due to Its Graphic Violence?

During a recent conversation with my brother, he randomly asked if I remembered a video game from the 90s titled Thrill Kill. This was a game that I hadn’t thought about in years, and when he said that name, all of the memories of playing it came flooding back!

This game was absolutely insane! It was so crazy and so disturbingly graphic that it was never officially released! It was created by developed by Paradox Development and initially scheduled to be published in 1998 by Virgin Interactive, but when Electronic Arts gained the publishing rights the same year and chose not to release it because they thought it was way too violent.

So how did we play this BDSM-themed fighting game when we were kids? Bootleg baby! Bootleg versions of the game were uploaded to pirating websites and it became especially popular as a ROM. We always had friends over at our house to play this extremely demented game. It seriously took things to a whole new level with over-the-top violence, overtly sexual, and gory content.

The plot of the game involves ten people who are sent to Hell after dying on Earth and there they are forced by Marukka, the Goddess of Secrets, to fight to the death for a chance at reincarnation. This was supposed to be the first four-player 3D fighting game, as up to four players were able to play at once using the PlayStation Multitap.

The fights in the game took place in a closed 3D room where four players would fight to kill one another one by one using brutal special moves known as "Thrill Kills". The characters each had a "kill meter" that increases with each successful attack performed. Whichever character fills this meter first must use a Thrill Kill on one other opponent of their choice, which violently obliterated them! Kind of like the fatality in Mortal Kombat but creepier.

You can get a taste of what this game was like and the Thrill Kills in it in the video below. There are eleven playable characters in the game and this is a breakdown of those characters along with their disturbing background information:

• Belladonna: A librarian who became a dominatrix and killed both her husband and sister after discovering that they were having an affair. She died after electrocuting herself with a prod. She uses this prod to fight and uses sexually suggestive moves.

• Cain: An arsonist who got trapped inside a building he set on fire and was burned alive. His attacks have the widest reach in the game and he can also shoot fire out of his backside.

• Cleetus: A cannibal who sold "homestyle" sausages made from human remains and died from eating infected flesh. He fights using a bloody, detached leg, and can also bite his opponents.

• Dr. Faustus: A plastic surgeon who killed and purposely disfigured his patients and died after affixing a bear trap to his face. His weapon is a scalpel and he also attacks using his metal mouth.

• The Imp: A dwarf "leather daddy" with a hatred for tall people, who died after sticking stilts into his legs. Unlike the rest of the characters (excluding Judas), The Imp is not revealed to have killed anyone during his time on Earth. He uses his stilts as weapons. Some members of Paradox's team resented Thrill Kill producer Harvard Bonin for attempting to change the game to give it a different ESRB rating, and modeled The Imp after Bonin as a jab at him.

• Judas: A pair of conjoined twins connected at the torso. It is never explained how Judas ended up in Hell. While one twin acts as the upper half, the other twin acts as the lower half, using their arms to hold them up.

• Mammoth: A postal worker who "went postal" after getting fired. He resembles a large, skinless gorilla and fights with his fists.

• Marukka: A demon and the "Goddess of Secrets" who gathers the other fighters to brawl for a chance at being reincarnated. While fighting, she can teleport.

• Oddball: An FBI behavioral analyst who became a serial killer. Due to his lack of arms, he primarily uses kicks and headbutts to attack, and can also use breakdancing to fight.

• Tormentor: A judge (real name William Whitefield) who would acquit criminals in order to kidnap and torture them later, and died by execution. His outfit is bondage-themed, and he fights using a heated whip.

• Violet: A circus contortionist who developed a strong hatred for men after being raped by one who broke into her dressing room, whom she killed. She died of a spinal cord rupture. She uses her contortion skills to fight opponents.

There was also a twelfth non-player character, The Gimp, which was inspired by "the gimp" from Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film Pulp Fiction, that could be unlocked as an opponent in Training Mode.

The game actually was originally developed as Earth Monster, which was a sports video game based on the Mesoamerican ballgame in which characters attacked one another as they tried to get a ball into a hoop. However, the developers were constantly pushed by the publisher to make the game more violent. So, they scrapped Earth Monster and ended up pivoting to Thrill Kill.

Later on down the road, Thrill Kill was reskinned by Paradox and used to make the 1999 PlayStation fighting game Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style, for Activision. It wasn’t as good, though.

Did you ever play this game? Have you ever even heard of it?