Primal Rage
  

  
STORY:  Before there were humans, gods walked the earth. They embodied the essence of Hunger, Survival, Life, Death, Insanity, Decay, Good, and Evil. They fought countless battles up through the Mesozoic Wars. Then Balsafas, an arch mage from a parallel dimension, anticipated the threat that Earth's gods posed. He was not powerful enough to kill the gods, so instead he banished one to a rocky tomb within the moon. This disrupted the fragile balance between the gods; pandemonium ensued, and a great explosion threw clouds of volcanic dust into the atmosphere. The dinosaurs died out, and the surviving gods went into suspended animation. Now, the impact of a huge meteor strikes the Earth. Its destructive force wipes out civilization, rearranges the continents, and frees the imprisoned gods.


 

   
REVIEW:  Released in arcades in 1994, Primal Rage is a unique 2D fighting game created using 3D clay models and stop motion animation, all originally animated by hand. The game's playable characters are giant prehistoric creatures (most resembling dinosaurs and giant apes) known as "gods" to the humans. A unique and somewhat disturbing part of the game involves tiny humans in the background who also come into play during gameplay. While the "gods" are fighting, tiny human tribesmen wander nearby and worship their gods during battle... the giant beasts can toss the humans around or even feast on them to regain strength. In addition, eating your opponent's humans will add to your score, while eating your own will penalize the player. Pretty twisted... yeah? Primal Rage was definitely a "head-turning" arcade fighting game in 1994, the violence having to be toned down in some of the console ports.

 

 

Primal Rage plays similarly to other 2D fighting games of the mid 90s, most notably Mortal Kombat. As players are moving the giant beasts around the screen, Primal Rage has a noticeably "slower" pace than some other fighting games of the time... appropriately so, you might say. The game actually has fairly decent fundamental mechanics and a combo system that's easy for the typical fighting game enjoyer to understand. Like the latest versions of Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat, each violent competitor has their staple normal priority attacks, throws, and special moves. Being one of the more notorious violent fighting games of the 90s, all characters in Primal Rage can perform a unique fatality called a Domination Move. In addition to the character;s heart exploding on the screen (regardless whether or not a Domination Move), these primal clashes usually end with violent finishing, bloody moves. Not for kids!


Unlike most fighting games, where special moves are performed by moving the joystick followed by pressing one or more buttons, Primal Rage's control scheme requires the player to hold down attack buttons, then perform the joystick movements. Later revisions of the arcade version enabled the ability to perform special moves using the more traditional method of other 2D fighting games, with motion inputs followed by button presses. This addition helped the game feel more natural to experienced fighting game players.
 

  
Another technique borrowed from the likes of Mortal Kombat or Killer Instinct, the game's animation was stop-motion captured by hand (similarly to how Midway animated Goro in MK1). The result is a very unique animation style, helping to make Primal Rage stand out amongst the crowd in the arcade scene. The overall graphics of Primal Rage were definitely eye-catching for a 1994 arcade game, but unfortunately most home ports' visuals didn't live up to the original arcade version. The 16-bit console ports suffered from much smaller character sprites and a much lower resolution, lacking the magic and most impressive visual aspects of the flashy and violent arcade version. However, the 32-bit ports faired much better in terms of visuals and animation. The home versions also featured exclusive bonus games like human volleyball and human bowling. Gotta give the devs some credit for their twisted sense of humor...


Primal Rage achieved a fair amount of success at arcades and retained its popularity when it was ported to a variety of home consoles. A sequel was actually planned (Primal Rage 2), but Atari games abandoned the project in fear that the game wouldn't make a profit. A few test cabinets of Primal Rage 2 were created and footage of the prototype version of the game can be found on YouTube. The canceled sequel diverged from the dinosaur theme, instead featuring giant "human" gods who could transform into various beasts during gameplay.


FUN FACTS:  Similarly to the Mortal Kombat series, Primal Rage sparked some mainstream attention and controversy at the time because of its level of violence and gore. Even though Primal Rage featured blood, Fatalities, gore, and cannibalism, the game was originally rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB. Eventually, the game was withdrawn by the developers, then re-programmed and re-released numerous times. The later versions of Primal Rage featured a toggle switch for "Gore" or "No Gore" — disabling all blood and Fatalities.


In 1996, a grassroots campaign led by Ellie Rovella was launched in protest of the Genesis version's "golden shower" fatality. This campaign resulted in Best Buy pulling the game from over 250 stores across the United States of America. After Atari Games re-released an updated version, Best Buy put the game back on the shelves... except for the Genesis version, which they stated they would only sell if it received an "M for Mature" rating. However, most home versions of the game contain all the same fatalities and gore as the Genesis version.
 

Page Updated: July 8th, 2025 Developer(s): Atari Games Probe Software          Console Publisher(s): Atari Games Time Warner Int.       Console Designer(s): Jason Leong                  Animator / Sketches Dan Plat                           3D Models Ken Humphries            Producer Platform(s): Arcade, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Sega Genesis, Game Gear, 32X, 3DO, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Jaguar CD, MS-DOS Release Date(s): August 1994                      Arcade Aug. 25th, 1995               SNES, Genesis, GG, GB, MS-DOS November 1995              SNES, Genesis, GG, GB, MS-DOS December 1995              Atari Jaguar CD 1995                                    /   PS1, Saturn, 32X 1996                                      PS1, 32X 1998                                      Saturn Characters:  Armadon, Blizzard, Chaos, Diablo, Sauron, Talon, Vertigo Featured Video: Related Games: Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, MK3 Ultimate, Killer Instinct, Killer Instinct 2, Killer Instinct Gold, Samurai Shodown 2, Street Fighter: The Movie, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Samurai Shodown 3, Samurai Shodown 4,Tekken, World Heroes 2 Jet, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Darkstalkers, Golden Axe: The Duel, Mace: The Dark Age, WeaponLord    Gameplay Engine  6.5 / 10 Story / Theme  8.5 / 10 Overall Graphics  7.5 / 10 Animation  8.0 / 10 Music / Sound Effects  7.0 / 10 Innovation  9.0 / 10 Art Direction  7.0 / 10 Customization  4.0 / 10 Options / Extras  6.5 / 10 Intro / Presentation  6.5 / 10 Replayability / Fun  6.5 / 10 "Ouch" Factor  6.0 / 10 Characters  6.5 / 10 BOTTOM LINE  6.8 / 10  Review based on Arcade version        Final Words: Primal Rage was pretty metal. Who would'a thunk the company behind a wholesome, family-friendly game like Asteroids would put out such a violent, borderline-disturbing fighting game? As a lover of many 2D fighters in the 90's, "Dinosaurs VS Giant Apes: The Game + Eating Humans" never really peaked my interest... even as young teenager. lol. But for some reason, I still (quietly) slipped quite a few tokens into that Primal Rage arcade cabinet back in the day (notably at smaller arcades that didn't have better fighting games or because the stick / buttons were broken on those). In fairness, Primal Rage was a pretty unique fighting game... and no doubt a "technical feat" at the time. While Primal Rage was visually and conceptually unique, the simplistic gameplay and overall gimmick seemed to have a lower ceiling than most other successful fighting games of the mid 90's (and those releasing short after). Simply put, I remember feeling Primal Rage just wasn't as "fun" or replayable as other comparable fighting games at the time. It seemed like the game's principle goal was to "turn heads" at the arcades and stand out as something completely different; (rather than be a fighting game dedicated players would enjoy playing for years, competitively). Still, Primal Rage succeeded in what it set out to be. It was an interesting change of pace to the typical mid-90's 2D fighting game, but the long term lasting appeal just wasn't there. The fact that the sequel, Primal Rage 2, never released also killed whatever potential this game had. It also didn't help that there were only 7 playable characters (which included 2 sprite clones). Other than that, I had some good times playing and watching Primal Rage at arcades. ~TFG Webmaster | @Fighters_Gen    Click Here for all Posters / Box Artwork / etc. Click Here for all Screenshots! FOLLOW    ON:                             TFG NEWS CHARACTERS GAMES