Primal Rage - Arcade and Console, 1994

 


Jason "Mr Midnyte" Pinon

Hey everyone, it's Forgotten Fighting Legends!

Oooooh man, this is a good one.  

First, a little bit of personal history/memories of this game.  When I was a kid, around 5th/6th grade, I was getting deeper into gaming.  Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat had already landed and created the base for what we know as Fighting Games.  We had just hit a point where all of the 'clones' or games inspired by SF and MK were starting to hit.  My best friend and fellow gaming enthusiast had been taken out for pizza at a local buffet that had an arcade.  Within, they had two brand new games - Tekken and Primal Rage.  The 3D nature of Tekken was cool, but DINOSAURS HOLY SHIT.  Just the insane nature of this game drew me in.  Even though I haven't played it in many many years, it still sticks in my mind.

This game is a 2D fighter with what appear to be stop-motion captured sprites for the characters.  Seven playable beasts to choose from, each with three special moves to rip and tear.  Unique to this game are the villagers and worshipers that scamper around in the background (some on your side, some that belong to your opponent) that can be consumed for power-ups.  Early versions of the game also had something different.  In most games, there is a controller motion followed by a button press in order to perform special moves.  In early versions of PR, you would hold the attack button then do the motion (like a negative edge) though it was changed to the more tradition style later.  It also includes some Mortal Kombat style finishing moves.


Representing the forces of Order and Chaos, the cast includes: Blizzard (Ice gorilla), Armadon (God of Life dino), Talon (God of Survival Raptor), Sauron (hungry T-Rex), Chaos (farting gorilla), Vertigo (Goddess of Insanity? So 90's edgelord), and Diablo (evil hungry T-Rex).  A meteor had struck the planet, reducing humanity to Stone-Age like tribes that worship the creatures that roam what is now known as Urth.

Release in Arcades in August of '94 by Atari and Midway, it eventually was released for almost every console available at the time and PC.  It was a financial success, although it made more money from merchandising than actual game sales.  Home platform games got mixed/positive reviews, mostly praising the presentation.  The game did get in some trouble after a parent saw their 11 year-old child performing a finisher in which Chaos the gorilla pees on his defeated opponent, causing an outrage that got the game pulled from the shelves of Best Buys across the country.  There was a campaign to have it's ESRB rating increased from 'T for Teen' to M or even AO (Adults Only), though after further investigation it was left at it's original score.

Overall, I feel like this game was interesting, trying to do something different with it's characters and play.  In the end, it just feels like another SF/MK clone that came out of that era.  It did spawn a sequel of sorts, one that was never put into mass production but exists on the internet and perhaps even a couple of cabinets.  I'm guessing at this point that Primal Rage may be...extinct.  Please don't hate me.


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