Primal Rage

1

T

7.0

1995-08-25

Cartridge Only

Primal Rage is a fighting game developed and released by Atari Games for arcades in 1994. The game takes place on a post-apocalyptic version of Earth called ”Urth”. Players control one of seven prehistoric beasts, that battle each other to determine the planet’s fate. Matches feature many of the conventions of fighting games from the era, including special moves and gory finishing maneuvers. Ports were released for home video game consoles and personal computers. Efforts to perfectly emulate the arcade original have been unsuccessful due to the use of an unusual copy protection method. Toys, comics, a novel and other merchandise tie-ins were produced. More than 1.5 million copies of the game were sold.

Description:

Select one of 7 ferocious dinosaurs then pound your opponents into submission as you battle for Urth Domination. Blizzard’s Freeze Breath and Ice Geyser fighting moves stop you cold just before his Mega Punch hammers you senseless. Diablo’s Inferno Flash cooks up a firestorm in one dino barbecuing breath, and the foul, disgusting Chaos dazes you with an abundant supply of Power Puke, Farts of Fury, and Flying Butt Slams. Armadon’s Gut Gouger and Gut Fling, Sauron’s Cranium Crusher and Talon’s Face Ripper and Shredding and Vertigo’s Scorpion Sting - every original arcade fighting and fatality move is at your fingertips! Get Ready to Rage!

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 is faced with a campaign of fights against CPU opponents of increasing difficulty.[5] The final battle of the single-player game (accessible only at difficulty level 10 or higher) consists of fighting all the other monsters, this time with an increased power bar, made available in a minigame prior to the fight. A total of seven characters are playable: Blizzard, the ape-like god of good; Armadon, the ceratopian/thyreophoran-like god of life; Talon, the raptor-like god of survival; Sauron, the tyrannosaur-like god of hunger; Chaos, the ape-like god of decay; Vertigo, the cobra-like goddess of insanity and Diablo, the tyrannosaur-like god of evil. Each character has their own specialized set of three attack moves and abilities. The object is to deplete the opposing character’s health meter before the player’s own runs out. There are also seven different background stages where fighting takes place, each one representing one of the character’s innate domains: the Cliff (Blizzard), the Hollows (Armadon), the Strip (Talon), the Cove (Sauron), the Ruins (Chaos), the Tomb (Vertigo) and the Inferno (Diablo).
During fights, human tribesmen wander nearby and worship the creatures as gods. This allows for the creatures to toss them around or devour some to regain health (eating opponents’ worshipers adds a bonus to one’s score, while eating one’s own will penalize the player). Prior to the final battle, a minigame commences in which the player is given the chance to eat as many worshippers as possible to increase health for the endurance round. Two human-controlled characters can trigger easter egg minigames of human volleyball and bowling.
Unlike most fighting games, where the 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 in the more traditional way, with 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 finishing move to end the match in a more dramatic fashion; these are performed in a similar manner to the special moves. Although all characters feature three finishing moves, some of them tend to the humorous side, such as Vertigo’s ”La Vache Qui Rit” (French for ”the laughing cow”), a fatality in which Vertigo transforms her opponent into a cow, which moos and runs away.

• Plot

A massive meteor strike has devastated Earth. Human civilization comes to an end in the ensuing cataclysms and humanity regresses into tribes of Stone Age dwellers. A primordial rainforest covers the land and the continental landmass has shifted into the shape of a fire-breathing dinosaur skull. The planet is now primitively referred to as ”Urth” by the survivors of the cataclysms.

Seven fearsome creatures with supernatural abilities emerge from their slumber deep within the Urth’s crust, and become worshiped as gods by the humans, who form segregated clans beneath the ones they follow. The beasts themselves are divided between those who wish to keep peace on Urth, and those who attempt to plunge the world into further chaos for their own benefit.

Sega Genesis (Mega Drive)

Time Warner Interactive

031763108504

1-2

United States

16-bit

Cartridge

1

Cardboard Box

~$10.97

2025-04-29

2018-07-03 12:09:56