Cancellation of Thrill Kill

Thrill Kill is an unreleased fighting game by Paradox Development and Virgin Interactive, developed in the late '90s for the Sony PlayStation and scheduled to release in 1998. It is notable for being the first game to be given an Adults Only (AO) rating by the ESRB solely for violence (all prior AO rated games were for sexual content) and was heavily hyped by the press and the already-existing fan communities from other fighting franchises such Mortal Kombat.

However, unfortunately, Virgin Interactive’s North American operations was acquired by Electronic Arts weeks before the Thrill Kill's scheduled release date. As such, they cancelled the game.

Background and cancellation
Set in a modern reimagination of the Christian hell, the player would control one fighter in an arena with three opponents. Instead of keeping a health bar, the player must fill a meter by harming the other three fighters, and once the "kill meter" is full, eliminate one of the opponents in a very violent cutscene. The last fighter standing is the winner. The game had a storyline about ten people (the playable characters) who died and been sentenced to hell for different reasons. Then, a demon named "Marukka" (the final boss) organized a contest where the winner would receive a chance for reincarnation on Earth.

The game was being highly anticipated by gaming websites and magazines. The magazine PSM went far enough to make a guide for the characters' combos before the release, and the magazine Tips & Tricks even went as far as making a complete walkthrough.

When VIE US was bought by Electronic Arts, EA promptly cancelled Thrill Kill, even though it was essentially complete, mainly due to its content rather than any gameplay or budget issues. Pat Becker, the director of corporate communications at EA declared to zdnet.com that "We felt that this was not the kind of title that we wanted to see in the market."

Aftermath
Thrill Kill's cancellation is often remembered as the first really terrible act of executive meddling made by Electronic Arts, right around the time gamers relationships with the company started to turn sour.

Electronic Arts' effort to keep Thrill Kill away from the public was in vain. Four versions of the game were released for free on the internet and currently can be easily found on various filesharing and ROM hosting websites. The game now has a cult following within the violent gamer communities and even fan websites.

The official US PlayStation magazine cited Thrill Kill as one of the most overrated cancelled games in 2004. In 2009, Game Informer ranked Thrill Kill tenth on a list of "The Top Ten Games That Almost Were". In 2011, GamePro ranked The Imp (one of Thrill Kill fighters) the fourteenth on a list of "The 50 Best Fighting Game Characters Ever".

Despite the game never being officially released, its engine went on to be used in other games, such as Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style, X-Men: Mutant Academy 1 and 2, and Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots Arena.

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