"Garbage in it's most primal form"

Recently I reviewed Primal Rage for the Genesis, and it was a decent title albeit severely lacking in depth. What may surprise many of you this brutal little fighter was once brought over to the humble black and white original GameBoy. Seeing as Primal Rage was scaled back even on the Genesis I had my reservations, and what do you know I was right.

Gameplay: Just like the Genesis version Primal Rage pits various beasts against each other in brutal battles for world domination. Sadly, the legged serpent is absent from the GameBoy version, presumably because the GameBoy couldn't support enough frames to animate her neck bite motions properly. Meaning you would probably be in for a world of flicker. Still, it really stinks since she was one of my favorite fighters in the game. The enemy AI is even worse then the Genesis version. While the Genesis version was either too easy or relied on cheap tactics, the GameBoy version is laughably easy. Really, it doesn't matter which difficulty setting. Yet again, the game presents a multi-player mode to combat the AI problems, and yet again if your friend is at all decent you problems are solved. However, friend the AI problems is the least of this titles problems.

Graphics: To be fair I'll start with the good then move onto the bad.The character sprites are large and sport a decent level of detail. The bad? Try choppy animation. Honestly, the game often looks like it is playing in slow motion, probably due to the two or so frames that the characters seem to posses. Second of all besides a few details here and there such as buildings, the backgrounds are stark white. No texturing nothing. One flaw that both the arcade and Genesis versions had is only enhanced in this version. What is that? Try the simple palette swaps of the apes and Sauron/Diablo. Only since the GameBoy doesn't have color capabilities they look exactly the same! Gee, they really try to please your eyes don't they?

Sound: Very poor. As usual the GameBoy wasn't capable of replicating, rather the sound is a serious downgrade.

Control: Dumbed down due to the GameBoy's lacks of buttons. Sadly,the special moves are made all the more difficult to perform. Also unlike the Genesis version you can't map any of those attacks. In a nutshell the game mechanics is chock full of frustration.

I liken this game to a nasty turd. You wouldn't want to touch it would you? How abut taste it? (play it) The answer is no? Then run far away from this god forsaken piece of software.

Score:3/10

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/02, Updated 08/31/02