[Playing…] Primal Rage (1994)

Many of you may not remember it (or you were not there to see it), but in 1994 a meteorite hit the Earth, unleashing natural catastrophes that devastated civilization, which caused humans to be forced to return to caves and hunt to survive. The change on Earth (now called Urth) also brought with it the appearance of giant monsters that will fight for control of the planet, or at least that is what happened according to the video game that I will discuss below.

Primal Rage appeared in 1994 in arcade machines, where it quickly attracted attention due to the enormous size of the first version of its arcade and its mix between fighting game with stop-motion animated dinosaurs (in the style Clayfighter or old movies).

After the first version, a second version appeared that improved the game by adding more special attacks and new final blows. A third and final one was also prepared where a final boss (Necrosan) would be included, but it was canceled before its completion.

Shortly after finishing Primal Rage, they got to work on the sequel, which would include the characters discarded from the first game, as well as a new roster of human fighters, but unfortunately it was canceled when it was already finished.

Different related products also appeared, such as comics, different types of toys, (action figures included, which also had characters discarded from the first game such as Necrosan and Slashfang) and even a board game, which show that the initial acceptance of Primal Rage was quite high and that they had very ambitious plans for this franchise.

After the Arcade version, versions appeared for almost all the consoles of the time (including such unusual platforms as 3DO, Atari Jaguar CD or 32 The result was totally uneven, since not only was the lack of graphics noticeable, but even some versions (such as the Game Boy and Game Gear) cut the roster of fighters (which went from short to very short). None of those versions came close to the greatness of the arcade original, which is the one I'm going to comment on below.

Maybe it's because I love dinosaurs and monsters, and I'm also a fan of stop-motion, but I think the graphics in this game are very good. The monster sprites have some very smooth animations (and some quite clunky) but overall they move very well. The blood is quite well resolved, being less exaggerated than in other violent games of the same era (such as Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3).

The scenarios are quite varied (caves, frozen areas, volcanoes, ruins of human civilization) and in most cases they are correct, and even include interesting details (such as collapsed buildings and the movement of water), but in others decisions have been made that slightly spoil them (Talon's is excessively light compared to the rest).

He taste for detail It can be seen in some secondary elements, such as humans kneeling before your fighter after you finish a combo or the Game Over screen encouraging you to continue fighting. The game artwork looks great too and the fact that the life and stamina bars represent the heart and brain is also very funny (especially because if we have little life left the heart beats faster and when we lose the fight it explodes, staining the screen with blood).

However, there is something that makes the game ugly, and that is the sprite repetition between different fighters (Blizzard-Chaos, Sauron-Diablo). This is common in the fighting genre (as demonstrated by Ryu-Ken-Akuma or the ninjas of Mortal Kombat), but I still don't like it, especially having so few characters. It is true that they have made an effort to differentiate them playably (they have totally different blows and special attacks) and they have even changed their size so that they are not exactly the same (Chaos and Diablo are smaller than Blizzard and Sauron).

While we fight we will hear the sound of bones crunching under some blows (or when we eat a human), the roars of the monsters, the special attacks and physical hits. They are all very rewarding and increase the feeling of brutality. The music varies between guitar-driven (with the occasional Deep Purple tribute) and somewhat sinister songs with chants.

And now comes when we get into the matter, because it is of no use for a game to be visually and sonically striking if it then fails in its playability. In Primal Rage we find that each character has two kick buttons and two punch buttons, if we press both at the same time they will make a third, stronger kick or punch. When it comes to protecting ourselves from the opponent's attacks, we only have to press back (as in most fighting games) and we have varios tipos de salto (el normal, el alto y el pequeño) siendo uno de los primeros juegos de lucha que nos ofrece esa posibilidad.

Al igual que  otros juegos de la época, Primal Rage hace bastante hincapié en los combos para poder obtener ventaja durante la partida, aunque es cierto que sus golpes fuertes son igual de efectivos, encontrar el equilibrio entre ambos es vital para prosperar en este juego. La buena noticia es que los combos son bastante flexibles y parecen más complicados de lo que realmente son, la mala noticia es que los comandos para hacer los ataques especiales están invertidos con lo que normalmente suele ser en esta clase de juegos, tal y como explicaré a continuación.

Normalmente, para hacer un ataque especial se suelen marcar las direcciones (por ejemplo, abajo-adelante) y luego se finaliza el comando con un botón de ataque, pero en Primal Rage se hace al revés: primero presionamos el botón (o los botones) y sin soltarlo hacemos el movimiento con las direcciones. Esto no es difícil de hacer, pero la costumbre de hacerlo al revés nos puede traicionar bastante. Tengo entendido que en las últimas versiones de Arcade se podían hacer los ataques especiales de ambas maneras (algo que se llevó a algunas versiones de consola como la de Super Nintendo), pero en todas las que yo he jugado, solo se pueden hacer los comandos “invertidos”.

Es una pena que no dejasen los comandos especiales de la manera habitual, porque hace que empezar a jugar a este juego sea más complicado de lo necesario. Entiendo que los Fatalitys sean extraños y complicados de hacer, pero no veo el motivo para hacer que los ataques especiales (o incluso comerse un humano) tengan comandos invertidos y complejos.

Otro punto débil de este juego es la cantidad de luchadores, pues sólo hay 7 personajes disponibles, lo cual nos da una de las plantillas más cortas que he visto en los juegos de este género. Inicialmente iban a ser 9 personajes, pero Necrosan y Slashfang no se terminaron a tiempo y se reservaron para el cancelado Primal Rage 2. Por otro lado, cada personaje cuenta con un número de ataques especiales muy elevado (entre 7 y 10) y 2 o 3 Fatalitys. Además aprender los combos y combinarlos con los ataques especiales nos puede llevar bastante tiempo.

La dificultad de este juego es algo elevada y  el combate final es durísimo (tenemos que derrotar a los otros luchadores uno detrás de otro), y solo podremos afrontarlo con garantías si dominamos nuestro personaje (y nos hemos comido muchos humanos en el bonus que hay antes de él). Tal y como sucede con muchos juegos de lucha, en cuanto lo hayáis completado con los personajes que más os gusten puede que Primal Rage quede olvidado, salvo que encontréis a alguien contra quien jugar.

Primal Rage tuvo su momento de fama (principalmente por su impacto visual) pero enseguida fue catalogado por mucha gente como un pésimo juego de lucha, algo con lo que no estoy de acuerdo. Jugablemente es bastante profundo y sus combos son divertidos de aprender.

Es cierto que sus controles “invertidos” requieren de un aprendizaje (que se podrían haber ahorrado), y también es verdad que la plantilla de luchadores es muy corta, pero cada uno de ellos tiene el doble o triple de ataques especiales de lo que se vería par aquel entonces en otros juegos más populares. Puede que este juego no esté a la altura de los grandes, pero no creo que sea un mal juego de lucha.