The 90s versus games was ruled by Street Fighter, the game that popularize the game genre. Then came Mortal Kombat, it was the craze back in the day, specially in the arcades. But when you have something that is proven to be an attraction to the public, there would be copycats of your formula. Though there were some who tried and failed to copy, Primal Rage was however stood out. It was, in a sense, Mortal Kombat, but the player controls a Dinosaur, a Kong-like creature, and other kinds of species.

The plot of the game was that a huge meteor hit Earth, causing widespread destruction. Human civilization collapsed, and people reverted to living in Stone Age tribes. A thick rainforest now covers the land, which has changed shape to look like a dinosaur skull. The survivors call the planet “Urth” (Earth). It’s a funny Planet of the Apes kind of a thing, but for a then 6 year old me, this was a very cool premise, and couldn’t wait to play them

There are a total of 7 characters to choose from and are divided into 2 factions. The Virtuous Beasts and the Destructive Beasts who wants to plunge the world into deeper chaos. All of them were deep asleep underneath Earth until the meteor woke them up. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses and of different species.

The game’s face is Blizzard, the so-called god of good and virtue, he is the yeti-like creature with the power of ice. Personally I use Talon, a Velociraptor. Quick, Agile, and deadly, though a bit of a glass-canon, but really fun to play as. Their movesets are quite limited but that didn’t stop them from gaining cult status over the years. Each character however had three fatalities each, which was a treat and made the game all the more enjoyable.

Primal Rage was made available on many platforms, including PlayStation, 3DO, Sega 32X, Atari Jaguar CD, Sega Saturn, Amiga, Mega Drive/Genesis, Super Nintendo, Sega Game Gear, Game Boy, and PC CD-ROM. The arcade version is also part of Midway Arcade Treasures 2 for PS2, Xbox, and GameCube. A pirated version for the Master System was released but only features three playable characters: Chaos, Blizzard, and Sauron.

Though the Genesis port was a bit of a let down due to technical reasons, it is the one I own, and the one where I played it the most. All in all, the Arcade version was the best, if you ever have a chance to play it in one, don’t miss it. You won’t regret it.

It was a fun game to play with friends and families, but the limited number of characters to choose from made it repetitive. It was a great game and dare I say, a very good competitor against Mortal Kombat at the time, but MK still had the edge for many reasons. Shout out to NBA JAM as well, that was one hell of a game.

There was a plan for a sequel, Primal Rage 2, but would come to be known as Rage 2. It was already under development in 1996. It was set to release in 1997. Unfortunately, the game was canceled a few months after Atari Games was acquired by Midway. When Primal Rage 2 was canceled, Atari wanted to share the sequel’s story in some way. So, in 1997, they released a novel called Primal Rage: The Avatars, written by John Vornholt.