Remember the demented 1998 video game THRILL KILL that was never officially released due to its graphic violence? if(type of ez_ad_units != ‘undefined’){ez_ad_units.push([[728,90],’geektyrant_com-box-3′,’ezslot_18′,112,’0′,’0′])};__ez_fad_position(‘div-gpt-ad-geektyrant_com-box-3-0’);

During a recent conversation with my brother, he randomly asked me if I remembered a 90s video game titled Kill by thrill. This was a game I hadn’t thought about in years, and when he said that name, all the memories of playing it came 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 obtained the publishing rights that same year and chose not to publish it as they thought it was 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 piracy websites and it became particularly popular as a ROM. We’ve always had friends over to our house to play this extremely crazy game. He has seriously taken things to a whole new level with over the top violence, overtly sexual and gory content.

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

The fights in the game took place in an enclosed 3D room where four players fought to kill each other using brutal special moves known as “Thrill Kills”. Each character had a “kill meter” that increased with each successful attack. The character who fills this gauge first must use a Thrill Kill on another opponent of his choice, who violently obliterated him! A bit like the fatality in Mortal Kombat but more disturbing.

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

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

• Cain: An arsonist who was trapped inside a building which he set on fire and was burned alive. His attacks have the longest reach in the game and he can also shoot fire from the back.

• Cleetus: A cannibal who sold “homemade” sausages made from human remains and died eating infected meat. He fights using a bloody and severed leg and can also bite his opponents.

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

• The Imp: A “leather daddy” dwarf with a hatred of tall people, who died after having stilts stuck in his legs. Unlike the rest of the characters (excluding Judas), The Imp has not been revealed to have killed anyone during his time on Earth. He uses his stilts as weapons. Some of the Paradox team resented Thrill Kill producer Harvard Bonin for trying 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 Siamese twins connected at the bust. How Judas ended up in Hell is never explained. While one twin acts as the top half, the other twin acts as the bottom half, using their arms to support them.

• Mammoth: A postal worker who “went to the post office” after being fired. He looks like a large skinless gorilla and fights with his fists.

• Marukka: A demon and the “Goddess of Secrets” who brings the other fighters together to fight for a chance to be reincarnated. While he’s fighting, he can teleport.

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

• Executioner: A judge (real name William Whitefield) who acquitted criminals then kidnapped and tortured them, and died by execution. His outfit is bondage themed and he fights using a heated whip.

• Viola: 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 battle opponents.

There was also a twelfth non-player character, The Gimp, who was inspired by “the gimp” from the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film pulp Fictionwho could be unlocked as an opponent in Training Mode.

The game was actually originally developed as Earth monster, which was a sports video game based on the Mesoamerican ball game in which characters attacked each other while trying to get a ball into a circle. However, the developers were constantly pressured by the publisher to make the game more violent. So, they demolished Earth monster and ended up rotating up Kill by thrill.

Later on the way, Kill by thrill was reskinned by Paradox and used to make the 1999 PlayStation fighting game Wu-Tang: Shaolin style, for Activision. It wasn’t that good, though.

Have you ever played this game? Have you ever heard of it?