Primal Rage

"Interesting concept, bad game"

I must admit, the thing that attracted me to Primal Rage was its concept. Pre-historic gods battling it out over control of the world sounds like it might make a good fighter, and it should. Unfortunately, Primal Rage has several nagging problems that keep it from being even an average fighting game.

Graphics- 4/10

By the standards of the year 2002, these graphics are unimpressive, but in reviewing an old game you have to try and be fair. Motion capture is used for the animation of the characters, which does achieve a decent level of detail. The battlegrounds for the most part are bland and lack any interesting features. The fighters themselves move in a jerky robotic manner. Some of the finishing and special moves look pretty cool, if you can pull them off, that is (more on that later). There is quite a bit of gore, blood flies everywhere and the heart beating at the end of the life meters will explode when a fighter loses. Your characters can even eat the villagers running about the area. Somehow this game managed to get a ''T'' rating by the ESRB.

Controls- 1/10

Here's where the headaches begin. Special moves are performed by holding buttons and then moving the d-pad in several directions. Finishing moves require even more buttons to be held and directions to be pushed. Better recruit a friend to help. The combo system is limited due to this fact, although some combos can be performed with some ease. Performing combos brings the human followers to the foreground, in which you can eat them to regain some life. Unfortunately the eat humans command also requires holding several buttons and moving the d-pad in many directions. Bad controls will hurt a game every time.

Sound 6/10

The grunts and roars of the fighters are nice sounding. The music is pretty much your generic fighting game fair, you really can't complain as it isn't a very memorable aspect of the game.

Gameplay 4/10

Only seven characters are available, and two are palette swaps. A mighty low number for a fighting game, although you can change their colors! Yippee skip. There are a few mini-games, human bowling, human volleyball, and tug-of-war, but they're only available for two players and are about as fun as they sound.

Bottom line- Primal Rage introduces a new twist to fighting games (at the time of its release, that is), but frustrating controls and a very limited cast hamper the experience. At this day, don't bother with it.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/11/02, Updated 07/11/02