| Primal Rage |
 |
| Developer(s) |
Atari Games |
| Publisher(s) |
Atari Games |
| Release date(s) |
1994 |
| Genre(s) |
2D Versus 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. Toys, comics, and other
merchandise were also produced.
Storyline
In Primal Rage, a meteor strike has devastated the earth; civilization has been utterly reduced to rubble and mankind has regressed
into tribes of Stone Age dwellers. Into this new radiation-scarred world, primitively referred to as "Urth", primordial rainforest has covered the land and numerous new species have evolved. Among these are giant mutated apes, and
reptiles that have regressed on the evolutionary scale back
into dinosaur-like beasts.
Out of their ranks emerge seven creatures who wage war for control over the new world; they are torn between those who wish to
keep peace on Urth, and those who attempt to plunge the world into further chaos for personal
gain. These creatures have otherworldly or supernatural abilities and each is said to
represent a different aspect of nature i.e. life and death, fire and ice; and they are considered
to be a "god" of their respective sphere. There are four "Virtuous Gods" and
three "Evil Gods".
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. The final battle of the single player game
consisted of fighting all the other CPU monsters with an increased power bar
made available to you in a mini-game prior to the fight. 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.
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. Prior to the final battle a mini game commences in which you are
required to eat as many worshippers as possible to increase your health for the endurance round. Eating your opponants
worshippers was worth more health and points than your own. An easter egg of human volleyball could be triggered by keeping
worshippers off the ground batting them back and forth between you and your adversary.
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.
Later revisions of the arcade game added the ability to perform "special moves" the more traditional way of motion followed by
button presses, but kept the original method as well. 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, these were performed in a similar manner to the
special moves. Some were more Easter Eggs than fatalities, such as the infamous 'Churl' by Chaos.
Characters
The Virtuous Gods
- Blizzard: Blizzard is one of two ape-beasts, the God of Good. He was frozen in a glacier
for millennia and was released by the meteor. He lived high up in the mountain and descended down to the ground when threated. 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 animal power and age-old wisdom makes
him almost unstoppable.
- 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.
Armadon has the easiest combos.
- Sauron: The second of the two Tyrannosaurus rex dino-beasts also being the tallest character and God of Hunger,
Sauron's immortality only lasts while 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 the Virtuous Beasts, though the anti hero of the group. He can
dish out the most damage of all the dino-beasts.
- Talon: Talon is based on Deinonychus; he is the God of Survival. One of
the Virtuous Beasts, Talon is the patriarch of a huge family of raptors and is fiercely
protective of it. 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. Talon is also the shortest character, and numerous ranged attacks by taller enemies will simply miss
him.
The Evil Gods
- Diablo: Diablo is one of the two Tyrannosaurus rex dino-beasts, and God
of Evil. This flame-spewing demonic dinosaur wishes to reduce Urth into a nightmarish,
magma-filled wasteland entirely devoid of life. He is nearly identical to Sauron's graphic model, albeit somewhat smaller and
with a different color scheme. Diablo is quick on his feet and is an excellent distance fighter but is somewhat weak in close
range. He is the leader of the Evil Beasts.
- 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. While all the dino-beasts are very vocal, Chaos is the only one that speaks a word. When defeated,
he yells out "No!" before collapsing.
- 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. She has the longest reach. 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.
Homage
As originally printed in an issue of GamePro in 1995, there is evidence to suggest that each
character is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a fighter from the original
Mortal Kombat. The individual traits, personality, and special moves
of each character resemble those of a counterpart in the Mortal Kombat lineup. For example, Armadon's power of electricity
is like Raiden, Blizzard has freezing attacks that disable the opponent like
Sub-Zero, Diablo has a distanced attack which drags the opponent near and
breathes fire like Scorpion, Talon has a flying kick resembling
Liu Kang's, Sauron has moves which produce shadows, similar to Johnny Cage, Vertigo being a lone female character and performing ring-shaped projectiles are similar in
nature to Sonya, and the barbaric nature and cannonball move of Chaos is
comparable to Kano. [citation needed]
Also, the concept of two fighters sharing near identical appearances (in this case, Sauron and Diablo, or Chaos and Blizzard)
resembles that of Scorpion and Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat. A similar technique was applied to Ken and Ryu of Street Fighter II.
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.
Sequels
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 low sales expectations 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.
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.
References
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
