There are plenty of copies of the final version around, ripped from the Gold Master.
It was secretly "made available" by Paradox after Virgin axed the title (not that Paradox will admit)-- the original soundtrack was not included for licensing reasons. If u wish to sample some of the original music, the link is:
http://www.pcbproductions.com/contagion/HTMLfiles/interactive/thrill_kill.html
Most copies play best with chips, as opposed to plug mods on the old PSX and PS1s, and it plays great with Bleem (PC) and CVGS (Mac). Any soundtracks you may find attached to your game are there because someone added the MP3 or WAV files during the authoring process when they re-wrote the disc image.
Thrill Kill is a fun game, and was quite good at the time it filtered out to the public. It is by no means deep or very sophisitcated, but gameplay is fast, furious, and funny. It is not very fancy compared to today's offerings, but still plays a pretty good game -- if not just for the absurdity of it all. An extra costume for each character can be unlocked by completing the training modes. The "professional" reviews that panned the bootleg were full-of-you-know-what, towing the "company line" by encouraging people not to bootleg it.
The game doesn't have cut scenes because it was never designed with cut scenes. However, there are ending movies for each character after the final boss battle. Some PAL BETAs were bootlegged and converted to NTSC, and are known to be missing the final FMVs. So just try and find one that claims to have the final FMVs and you will know that you have the complete game (minus the original soundtrack-which u could probably add yourself). Do not pay a premium for this game as it is very common.
The same engine was used by Paradox for a number of games on the PS1 including:
- WuTang Shaolin Style - which most closely matches Thrill Kill's gameplay, and is plenty bloody itself. With its Soul Blade like story mode, it is well worth your purchase, to show you what the next evolutionary step in the Thrill Kill engine was. Tons of unique characters, unlockables, and extremely difficult boss battles round out the package.
- X-men Mutant Academy 1 & 2 - moving away from the full 3-D movement of Wu Tang, Paradox was able to show how versitle its little "TK engine that could" was. Full of unlockable items, these games do a good job of showcasing the TK engine and all that it could do.
- Rock'em Sock'em Robots - perhaps the least exciting of the lot, and the last use of the TK engine, with a very limited range of attacks and combos. RSR offered the ability to customize your robots with the dismembered body parts of your enemies. It is a competant "kids" game, which may appeal to some, but which I found a little dull. Still, it looks and sounds good, and is just the ticket for an evening of fighting with younger gamers.