PRIMAL RAGE by Atari Games / Time-Warner Interactive

Coin-Op Arcade

Reviewed by Nathan Cochrane

Atari Corp has marked its transformation into the revamped Time Warner Interactive with the release of a dazzling series of new projects. First cab off the rank is Primal Rage, a beat-em-up in the tradition of Street Fighter II. The game is designed for one or two players and spans seven separate levels of bone-stomping, muscle-pumping fury.

Using a proprietary state-of-the-art stop motion technique similar to that used in movies such as Jurassic Park, a host of seven prehistoric player characters have been painstakingly rendered from clay figures. This process provides an extraordinarily high level of detail while its high frame rate grants the characters an uncanny 3D appearance.

The process by which each figure is animated for the final game is an involved and time-consuming one. Each figure is moved a little at a time, and its image digitised into a computer's memory. Later, an artist redraws and touches up each individual frame of animation, adding any further elements such as blood, facial features and so on as required. This secondary process is also known as rotoscoping. Finally a programmer links the individual frames of animation into a set of paths so that whenever an action is performed by a player, the correct result is displayed on screen.

Each character has at its disposal a massive seventy separate moves with which to attack, defend and generally pulverise the opposition.

Receiving equal attention as the graphics is the game's soundtrack and sonics. Using the CAGE stereo sound system, players can literally feel the crunch of every heavy impact and the gush as blood spurts onto the landscape. The spatial stereo permits advanced channel crossover effects so as a player moves from one side of the screen to the other, so do the accompanying sonics.

A criticism of similar games in the past is the difficulty involved in performing some of the special moves. Primal Rage addresses these concerns by requiring only four buttons and a standard directional joystick control in order to manipulate the characters.

It has become accepted practice to include a suitably gory end stage with copious quantities of the red stuff in games such as this. Primal Rage is no exception, with the fantasy characters dying in suitably agonising and blood-thirsty ways. However as many arcades will no longer be showing death scenes or fatalities as they have come to be known, most players will have to content themselves with the thrill of victory.

Another advanced feature of the game is its single player open-ended approach. Rather than finishing with a final end-sequence like most similar games, Primal Rage permits the player to continue. Starting back at the first character, the stakes are raised a notch as hits do more damage.

Primal Rage is available primarily in two formats; the familiar 25” upright and a deluxe 33” family cabinet.

From start to finish, Primal Rage oozes class (and blood, and guts and broken bones). Doubtless the legion of devoted Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat fans will appreciate Atari's time warp into pre-history, and the opportunity to kick some dinosaur butt into the process.

This review is Copyright (C) 1994 by Nathan Cochran for Game Bytes Magazine. All rights reserved.