Primal Rage

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Primal Rage
Title Screen from Primal Rage
Developer(s) Atari Games
Publisher(s) Atari Games
Release date(s) 1994
Genre(s) Fighting
Mode(s) 2 players, playing simultaneously
Rating(s) ESRB: Teen
Platform(s) Arcade, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Amiga, 3DO, Jaguar, Game Boy, Game Gear, 32X, SNES, PC
Input Joystick, 4 buttons
Arcade cabinet Upright
Arcade system(s) Atari GT System
Arcade CPU(s) Motorola 68EC020 (@ 25 MHz)
Arcade sound system(s) TI TMS32031 (@ 33 MHz)
(4x) DMA-driven DAC
Arcade display Raster resolution 336x240 (Horizontal) Many Colors

Primal Rage is a versus fighting game developed and published by Atari Games. It was originally released in 1994 as an arcade video game. It was later ported to numerous home consoles (such as PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Mega Drive/Genesis, Super Nintendo) and PC. Primal Rage was also included in Midway Arcade Treasures 2. A sequel, Primal Rage 2, was put into production but was later canceled. Toys, comics, and other merchandise were also produced.

Contents

[edit] Storyline

In Primal Rage, a meteor strike has devastated the earth. Mankind has been reduced to tribes of Stone Age dwellers and now seven god-like dinosaur and ape beasts wage war for control over the new Urth. They are torn between those who wish to keep peace on Urth and those who attempt to plunge the world into chaos.

[edit] Gameplay

Primal Rage is a traditional two-dimensional fighting game in which two players select characters to battle each other in one-on-one combat or a single player finishes a campaign of fights against the CPU over increasing difficulty. A total of seven characters are available for players to select from (as listed below). Each dinosaur has his or her own specialized set of attack moves and abilities. In the game, the object is to deplete the opposing character's health meter as fast as possible.

After the opponent is defeated, a brief moment is allowed for the player to perform a fatality that finishes the adversary in a more dramatic fashion.

While fighting, human tribesman will move in the background and worship their gods during battle. This allows for the dinosaurs to toss them around or devour some to regain strength.

Unlike most fighting games, where "special moves" are performed by moving the joystick, followed by pressing one or more buttons, Primal Rage features a system where the player holds down certain buttons, then performs the joystick movements.

[edit] Characters

  • Armadon: A ceratopsian dinosaur, and the God of Life, Armadon is a Virtuous Beast and fights to defend Urth and prevent its destruction. His genetic makeup appears to be part Chasmosaurus and Ankylosaurus. The tail tip is a combination of the ankylosaurus tail club and a stegosaurus' thagomizer.
  • Blizzard: Blizzard is one of two ape-beasts, the God of Good. A noble and heroic yeti-like beast, Blizzard wishes to undo the damage caused to Urth by both the meteor and the warring gods. Many of his abilities focus around the manipulation of ice and cold. Blizzard is the leader of the Virtuous Beasts, and his nemesis is Diablo.
  • Chaos: The second of the two ape-beasts, and the God of Decay, Chaos was formerly a scientist/witch doctor, transformed into his current state by accident. Chaos is an Evil Beast and is the crudest of all dino-beasts, with moves like Fart of Fury and Power Puke. His Golden Shower fatality (where Chaos dissolves the flesh from his victim with a geyser of acidic urine) was deemed so disgusting that the game was pulled from the market and replaced with a version lacking this fatality.
  • Diablo: Diablo is one of the two Tyrannosaurus Rex dino-beasts, and God of Evil. This flame-spewing demonic dinosaur desires to transform Urth into a nightmarish hell. He is nearly identical to Sauron's graphic model, albeit somewhat smaller. Diablo is Blizzard's rival, and is the leader of the Evil Beasts.
  • Sauron: The second of the two Tyrannosaurus Rex dino-beasts and God of Hunger, Sauron's immortality only lasts whilst he devours human flesh, as he suffers from an insatiable appetite. In spite of this, he is not evil, but is in fact one of Virtuous Beasts.
  • Talon: Talon is based on Deinonychus; he is supposed to be the God of Survival. One of the Virtuous Beasts, Talon is the patriach of a huge family of raptors, fiercely protective, it is for their sake that he plunges into the war. Talon is the fastest character in the game and is a favourite among many.
  • Vertigo: Vertigo is a unique beast based on a King Cobra and a Sellosaurus (or possibly a Tanystropheus), Goddess of Insanity. She is one of the Evil Beasts and is the only female dino-beast available. The storyline of the game states that her imprisonment in the moon forced the other dino-beasts into suspended animation until the meteor impact. Vertigo is absent from the Game Boy version.

[edit] Controversy

As with other bloody U.S. based fighting titles of the time (most notably Mortal Kombat), Primal Rage sparked considerable controversy due to its extreme violence, depicting gory fatalities and the live devouring of humans. The game has been withdrawn, re-programmed and re-released numerous times. According to Victar's Primal Rage FAQ (section 7.4) the June 1996 issue of GamePro confirms that Ellie Rovella of Gilbert, Arizona became enraged when her 11-year-old son bought and played Genesis' Primal Rage, using GamePro's strategy guide to execute Chaos' golden shower fatality. Rovella was so outraged she not only returned the game, but also launched a grass-roots campaign. As part of this, the finishing move was famously censored on the Super Nintendo version by placing a large "censored" bar over the screen when it was performed.

[edit] Sequels

[edit] Primal Rage 2

By 1995 Atari had began production of Primal Rage's sequel, simply titled Primal Rage 2. The game however was never released, due to the feeling it wouldn't make enough sales and other production problems. In the storyline the original characters had been trapped and were unable to fight against one another directly, therefore they each selected a representative from their human worshippers to fight on their behalf. These representatives were given the ability to morph into their god's image. New gods were also set to make an appearance, such as Slash Fang, a prehistoric fighter taking the form of a Smilodon, and Necrosan, a living dragon skeleton, who was previously axed from the first game.

The storyline follows closely on the events chronicled in the first game, as it is revealed that the meteorite that once struck earth is in fact an egg holding the dragonbeast Necrosan, a terrible monster bent on destroying Urth. To protect their world the gods unite against Necrosan, but are defeated in the ensuing battle and subsequently imprisoned in a state of semi-suspended animation. The gods then form human avatars for themselves and fight the minions of Necrosan to release them from their prison and battle Necrosan (this plot is used for the book Primal Rage: The Avatars.

[edit] Primal Rage: The Avatars

When Primal Rage 2 was cancelled, Atari allegedly felt it necessary to somehow present the story for the sequel in one form or another. Thus, in 1997, Primal Rage: The Avatars, written by John Vornholt, was published by Boulevard Books. The book's plot tells about what happened to the dino gods 65 million years ago, and then moves into the main story of the gods' reign on Urth renewed, but then the beast Necrosan appears. The book focuses as well on fleshing out the world of Primal Rage, and does so by bringing "the Avatars" to the forefront of the story, they being the humans chosen by their respective gods to channel their awesome might. Each human character has his or her own personalities, often reflecting the gods themselves.

A number of details to the backstory of Primal Rage are made clear in The Avatars. According to John Vornholt's novel the events in Primal Rage take place in the year 1000 AC (After Cataclysm) or about the year 3000 AD according to the Gregorian calendar. The battles of the dinosaurs are referred to as "The Primal Rage". In the novel, the spell used to imprison the dinosaur gods is called the Bonds of Forbidding. Necrosan the skeletal dragon (who is referred to as Necronus on the introductory page) reactivates the Bonds of Forbidding to entrap the gods.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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