Line #34 VideoGame/ThrillKill


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c6ba1ac42e9ab74260143c58707b8bd2.jpg]]
2
3
4	''Thrill Kill'' is an [[{{Vaporware}} unreleased]] [[{{Gorn}} ultra-violent]] fighting game for the Sony Platform/PlayStation. Set in [[CityOfTheDamned an urban version of Hell]], the characters were all incredibly evil mortals, damned for various atrocities, including murder. However, rather than being sent directly to their just desserts, they're able to fight each other for another chance in the mortal world, watched over by Marukka the Goddess of Secrets, who has organized the infernal tournament ([[ItAmusedMe simply because she's bored]]) and promised the winner reincarnation on Earth.
5
6	The game is notable for a number of reasons. The first is for having a four-way 3D battle system, something that had never been done to the fullest like this before. [[OvershadowedByControversy The game is also quite notable for the controversy surrounding it]]. The game's [[{{Gorn}} ultra violence]] and dark [[CombatSadomasochist sadomasochistic]] themes caused it to get quite a bit of flack from Creator/ElectronicArts, who then-recently had bought the game's publisher, Virgin Interactive, and then [[ExecutiveMeddling forcibly shelved]] the game from release to avoid it tarnishing their image. EA also shot down any chance of the game getting a release by any other publisher, believing the game to be too violent to release. ''Thrill Kill'' is also notable for being one of the first video games to receive an [[MediaNotes/AdultsOnlyRatingESRB AO (Adults Only) rating]], though the rating never went to full use due to the game never being officially released.
7
8	Even though the game was officially unreleased, the developers leaked the game unto the Internet, allowing many people to find and download unfinished versions.
9	----
10	!! This game contains examples of:
11
12	* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: Violet's bones appear to be made of rubber considering how flexible she is. Her Bio mentions her as nothing more than a skeleton.
13	* AnArmAndALeg: Almost all of the finishing moves involve completely dismembering the opponent, sometimes to the extent that they are in small pieces. [[TickleTorture Almost all of them.]]
14	** Cletus uses a disembodied leg as a weapon. After winning a match, he will sometimes begin to [[{{Squick}} chew on it]].
15	* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Tormentor's ending involves him releasing the serial killer who murdered (among others) his wife, so he can torture and murder the sicko himself. A real-life court system would never give a judge authority over any case where the judge has a personal connection to someone involved, [[TropesareTools for this exact reason]].
16	* AxCrazy: '''Everyone''', with special mention going to [[MadDoctor Dr. Faustus]], [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Oddball]], [[AnimalisticAbomination Mammoth]] and [[ImAHumanitarian Cletus.]]
17	* BloodierAndGorier: Was hyped as being more hardcore than even ''Franchise/MortalKombat''. In most cases, it wasn't lying.
18	* BodyHorror: Most characters. Faustus and the Imp actually ''start'' there, within the game's context. It was also what killed Violet in the first place (bodies can only bend so far, after all). Special mention should also go to Judas, [[ConjoinedTwins for obvious reasons]].
19	* BondageIsBad: This is Belladonna's theme.
20	** Each character has at least four costumes, many of which are bondage or fetish wear.
21	* {{Bowdlerise}}: One version of the game removes Cletus's "Yummy" when he starts eating and replaces Belladonna's erotic moans with Violet's laughter. It also takes out one of Belladonna's more suggestive finishers.
22	* CombatSadomasochist: Belladonna is essentially a fighting dominatrix.
23	* ConjoinedTwins: Judas. The figure is comprised of two men connected from the waist like a human [[WesternAnimation/CatDog CatDog]]. During fights, one man attacks with his fists while the other acts as the legs, rotating positions if needed.
24	* DancePartyEnding: Every character has one finishing move that involves the winner and the last guy standing dancing. [[KillItWithFire Unless it's Cain, who burns the last fighter before dancing.]]
25	* DeadlyDoctor: Dr. Faustus, a doctor who murders people on the operating table (assuming he doesn't just gut them outright).
26	%% ZCE * DeepSouth: Cletus of course.
27	* DigitalPiracyIsOkay: A few of the original designers releasing bootleg versions of the game all over the web is the reason why this game hasn't been completely forgotten.
28	%% ZCE * DrivenToMadness: Oddball's backstory.
29	* EvilLaugh: Cain delivers one after performing a Thrill Kill.
30	* EvilVersusEvil: All the characters are damned souls entering the tournament in hopes of being reincarnated out of hell.
31	* FinishingMove: The game is built around inflicting these. Instead of health, you have a "kill meter", which fills up as you damage your opponents. Once it's full, you can kill one of your opponents. When you're down to just one opponent, you can unleash a more traditional fatality, known as a [[TitleDrop "Thrill Kill"]].
32	** Belladonna has one finisher that subverts this. She crouches out of frame directly in front of her dazed victim while they start to make perturbed noises, but then the camera zooms out to show that she's merely tickling their foot.
33	* ForTheEvulz: The only explanation for Dr. Faustus's backstory. He just really loved seriously harming his patients.
34	* FreudianExcuse: If you listen closely to the news reporter during the Tormentor’s ending, you’ll hear that his wife was murdered by a SerialKiller.
35	%% ZCE * GoingPostal: Mammoth's backstory, with the added wrinkle of him physically tearing people limb from limb when he snapped.
36	* {{Gorn}}: Blood flies everywhere with each hit, and a match isn't over until all but one fighter is reduced to a pile of bloody limbs.
37	* HangingJudge: Tormentor was one before he went to Hell, declaring many who entered his court guilty just so he could personally torture them to death later.
38	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Oddball was an FBI analyst who, after long exposure to the worst elements of mankind, snapped and became no better than the killers he was investigating.
39	* HumblePie: Mammoth. Frail soul within a hulking body, went [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge postal after being fired]], and committed [[BoomHeadshot suicide]]. Franklin just couldn't catch a break.
40	* ImAHumanitarian: Cletus. Some of his finishing moves even involves him gruesomely eating his opponents.
41	* KarmicDeath: Many of the characters die in ironic fashions in their back stories.
42	* KillItWithFire: Cain is literally on fire, and uses fire as his chief weapon. His "dance" FinishingMove sees him light the opponent ablaze and then dance around their burning corpse.
43	* LifeMeter: Notably inverted with the "Kill Meters". Instead of going down when you take damage, it fills up when you inflict damage (it usually forces players to be more aggressive in their gameplay strategy). When the Kill Meter is full, you can kill off one of the other 3 opponents. You repeat this process until you're down to the last opponent, at which point you can unleash a [[TitleDrop "Thrill]] [[FinishingMove Kill"]].
44	%% ZCE * MadDoctor: Dr. Faustus.
45	* TheNapoleon: The Imp is a man with dwarfism who is obsessed with being a normal height. He fights on stilts, and is in Hell because he died of an infection after cutting off his legs to replace them with even taller stilts.
46	* OrificeInvasion: One of the Imp's Thrill Kills sees him leaping into his opponent's mouth and climbing into their body before exploding out of them.
47	%% ZCE * OurDemonsAreDifferent: Marukka.
48	* PaletteSwap: Each character has four alternate costumes they can wear, with at least one of each BDSM themed.
49	* PyroManiac: The reason Cain is in Hell - he was a serial arsonist who now, in Hell, burns eternally.
50	* RapidFireFisticuffs: All the characters have at least one thrill kill that involves them hitting the opponent with a [[SpamAttack barrage of strikes]] until they explode. [[AlphaStrike Then there's that one attack of Dr. Faustus's where he rapidly stabs the opponent so many times with his scalpel that]] he needs to stop his attacking arm with his other arm.
51	* {{Reincarnation}}: The main goal for every character, as this is their reward for winning the tournament.
52	* SerialKiller: Cletus, Tormentor and Oddball were all this in their past life. In Oddball's backstory, he was a FBI profiler meant to investigate them, but later [[DrivenToMadness went insane]] and [[HeWhoFightsMonsters became one himself]].
53	* SerialKillerKiller: Tormentor's backstory involves him killing criminals that he himself convicted. He was eventually caught and put on trial as one for his actions.
54	* ShoutOut:
55	** One of Judas's costumes has the twins cosplaying [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu and Ken]].
56	** The name "Violet Boregard" sounds [[Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory awfully familiar]]. Becomes funnier in hindsight when her namesake character gains incredible flexibility near the end of the 2005 film.
57	** The devil face on the title screen (as seen on the page image), is quite blatantly ripped off from [[WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}} Chernabog]].
58	%% ZCE * SlasherSmile: Cain.
59	* SpiritualSuccessor: Since this game was never released to the public, its engine was then used to make the more mediocre (yet still pretty violent) ''[[{{Music/WuTangClan}} Wu-Tang Shaolin Style]]''.
60	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Faustus and the Imp both died because they tried to implant metal into their bodies, which - far from giving them new powers - caused their forced-open wounds to become infected.
61	* TragicVillain: The Tormentor is the closest we get, as his FreudianExcuse is that his wife was murdered by a SerialKiller.
62	* TrainingDummy: The training mode lets you beat on a man in a gimp suit who never seems to die, and actually [[TooKinkyToTorture loves the violence you inflict on him]].
63	* VillainProtagonist: Pretty much everyone, though some characters are more sinister than others.
64	* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: Discouraged; while you could technically just sit back in the first two rounds of a fight and let your opponents kill each other, the character who lands a kill in a given round starts the next round with a "Kill Bonus" added to their Kill Meter, encouraging you to actively go for the kill every round of the match.
65	* WithMyHandsTied: Oddball. He ''is'' in a straitjacket after all. Some of his alternate costumes take it a step further by having him not have arms at ''all''.

Context VideoGame / ThrillKill