Primal Rage began as a wildly popular versus style arcade game that eventually made its way into many other formats. As fighting games go, it has reached classic proportions and can be included in the likes of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. It is a two-player, simultaneous play fighting game. The second player can also be replaced by AI, if there is no one around to beat on!
The premise of Primal Rage, not that it is necessary to understand in order to play this beat ‘em up, is a meteor strike that devastates the land and reduces the Earth to a prehistoric state.
Primal Rage began as a wildly popular versus style arcade game that eventually made its way into many other formats. As fighting games go, it has reached classic proportions and can be included in the likes of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. It is a two-player, simultaneous play fighting game. The second player can also be replaced by AI, if there is no one around to beat on!
The premise of Primal Rage, not that it is necessary to understand in order to play this beat ‘em up, is a meteor strike that devastates the land and reduces the Earth to a prehistoric state. Aside from the changes in modern man, new species have evolved in the form of King Kong like apes and reptiles on the scale of
dinosaurs. Seven characters emerge with aspirations of become all-powerful and these are the characters from which the gamer chooses. They all have godly powers, but three are evil, battling for selfish reasons, and four are fighting to regain order on the devastated planet. Each god falls into one of several category types. There are two ape-like beasts, one good and one evil. There are two characters modeled after the awesome T-Rex, one good and one evil. There are two other miscellaneous dinosaurs, and one evil character modeled after a king cobra.
The game features fairly standard arcade fighting controls, with a strong and weak attack for punches and kicks. Mortal Kombat’s finishing moves have been renamed “Domination Moves,” but they still follow the same principal with each character having a unique skill. The finishes are especially bloody and brutal, often featuring chunks of flesh flying and splattering about the screen or flesh being scorched from a still-breathing opponent. The creatures can also be seen devouring live human victims from time to time. Due to the nature of the game, it sparked great controversy when it was released in the mid-nineties, similar to the GTA series of the century’s turn. For this reason, it is not strongly recommended for young children.
Overall, this is not a bad fighting game. The ability to select from seven unique characters makes it replayable, although gamers will likely find themselves returning to their same favorites over and over again. Mastering the moves and combinations required for the gory Domination Moves can be a bit challenging at first, but with practice (with the aforementioned favorite) a gamer will surely succeed in domination of the “Urth”.
