Thrill Kill

"The First 4 Player Fighter on the Playstation!"

In 1998, Paradox and Virgin made a gruesome and very disturbing fighting game known as Thrill Kill. Then Electronic Arts bought them out and decided to halt Thrill Kill's release. They thought Thrill Kill was too violent and inappropriate for the videogame market. Acclaim even tried to buy the Thrill Kill franchise from EA, but refused to give them the rights to Thrill Kill. Electronic Arts was stupid and very ignorant to decide not to release this game. Heck, they are even too greedy to at least sell this game to Acclaim! But then again those who were dying to know what Thrill Kill was like got the new Wu Tang fighting game in 1999 which used a similar game play engine. Now that you have some background on this game lets move on to the review!

GRAPHICS- 7/10

The character designs in this game are pretty neat and imaginative. You have a mad doctor, a dominatrix, a hillbilly, a gothic girl, an imp, etc. The stages and the scenery all look great as they set the dark gothic mood of the game. The graphics, however, are not all that perfect and could be improved. One flaw in this game is that its too pixelated. It really kills the game when you see big red blocks for blood when Thrill Kill is all about blood, gore and all that nasty stuff. The animations are an even bigger problem though as Paradox and Virgin made them too repetitive. For example, the only kills in the game that have at least some variety in the animations are the Thrill Kills. I really can't give this game praise when every ones' kill list (excluding Thrill Kills) is the same. Overall, these graphics are good but Thrill Kill was made to be a VERY violent game which is supposed to have lots of imaginative and detailed ways of dismembering and torturing opponents. :)

SOUND- 6/10

The music in this game is really creepy, dark and sets the mood of the game real well. The sound effects however are the complete opposite as they really hurt the game. They are way too repetitive. The grunts and noises available are very few, and only a couple of fighters actually have unique sound effects. For example, Belladonna and Violet sound exactly the same. You can tell a lot of work was put into the music, but more variety is needed in the sound effects.

GAMEPLAY- 8/10

+ Gameplay
The 4 Player Engine is the neatest most innovative thing I've ever seen in a fighting game and Thrill Kill has it! Yep thats right, you can fight with 4 players all at once in an every person for them self brawl rather than the usual 1 on 1 fights. In Thrill Kill, the 4 player engine works like this. In the first round you start off with 4 fighters and each player has their own ''Kill Meter''. Each time you hit an opponent your kill meter fills up bit by bit. Stronger attacks fill up more of the meter while weak attacks fill up less of it. The first person to fill up their Kill Meter gets to chase around their opponents and choose who they want to kill. In Round 2, you are left with only 3 fighters and the process continues so that in the Final Round you only have 2 fighters left standing. In this final round, the winner gets to perform a ''Thrill Kill'' on their opponent. Each character has about 5 unique Thrill Kills. There is also a Team Mode in this game but thankfully its not one of those Tag Team things like they have in Marvel Vs. Capcom. And yet, people still think Tag Team is cool for reasons that I can't comprehend. I much rather duke it out in a Tornado Tag style like they do in Thrill Kill where 2 members of one team and 2 members of the other team are present at the same time.

+ Practice Mode
The Practice Mode is simple but its a great way to learn your moves. It would be better if you had more to do in Practice Mode though.

+ Controls
I personally do not find the controls to be too difficult. Trust me, I've seen a lot worse in other fighting games. The controls are very much like Tekken and if you are an expert Tekken player then you will be an expert in this game in no time. The controls are fairly simple but you need to be quick and you have to think fast in this game or else you'll get whooped. Some have criticized Thrill Kill for its controls saying that because there are 4 players in the game you don't have enough time to pull of a powerful move before an opponent pulls off a move of their own. My advice for those who have trouble with the moves is that you have to slow down your opponents first by attacking them THEN use these moves when you have the advantage. And besides, The Practice Mode is there to help train you.

- Kills
Sure each character gets 5 unique Thrill Kills but the regular kills are all the same for each character. The kills are so repetitive and get boring real fast.

- Characters
Thrill Kill is not a bad game but it could have been much better if there were more characters. You only get 11 characters! Three in which you have to unlock. Even the early street fighter games had more characters than this. I was disappointed.

FUN- 7/10

The 4 Player engine is really fun and even better when you have a multitap and three other friends with four controllers. However, the game lacks characters and variety in the different kills.

VALUE- 8/10
The 4 Player engine is very innovative and many fighting games will hopefully build on Thrill Kill's 4 Player engine in the future. Thrill Kill has great value as it is an excellent alternative to those Street Fighter and Tekken clones. Thrill Kill is also the best fighting game to play when friends are over. The game does suffer a bit thanks to the lack of characters and the useless secrets.

OVERALL- 7.4/10(rounded to 7)
I thought Thrill Kill was a good game which had some great aspects to it like the 4 player brawls but the game also has some noticeable flaws which hurt the game slightly. If you like the good old traditional fighting games like Street Fighter you may not like this. (I like Street Fighter so I guess Im an exception) If you are tired of all those unoriginal fighting games that Capcom has been releasing lately then get Thrill Kill because this is as original as the fighting genre gets. The game was never actually released on the Playstation so you'll have to get a burned copy from someone and you need a modchip.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/28/01, Updated 06/28/01