I believe it’s a problem which stems from either being unable to reach whoever owns the rights, or it might have been a part of a sale and the large corporation who owns the rights now are just sitting on them.
Was it made by Midway, or am I just assuming that because of MK?
Yeah, the rights to Primal Rage are somewhat complicated. It was made by Atari and published by Time Warner Interactive. I don’t know if either of these even exist anymore. Famously, the original arcade ROM has encryption on it so no one can emulate the game properly (removed blood, fatalities and combos) - including Midway’s arcade collection.
I’m sure it could be sorted out who owns the IP - but it would probably take some effort.
I laughed when I read the words fluffy tank. Enough said.
I never played the original, but I’d like to at least give it a shot. Someone could, given good enough sound design and graphical recreation, capture the vibe the original tried to give off in today’s hardware, I reckon.
I used to love Primal Rage… my fav character was Ript… er uh… Talon… 
I also really liked Diablo. I had it in Sega Genesis and then on the 32X (of which was a MUCH better port).
It would be fun to see somebody finally get the rights to it, rather than creating some cheap knockoff… Then again… Primal Mage sounds like a fun title.
Still I’d tell ya, if given the opportunity, I would play it again.
The one thing that I REALLY didn’t like about PR is the complex button inputs to perform specials and fatalities. Hold this button down, while turning this direct, release and press this other button… It was a little much.
Yeah I think that’s what turned off some people. Primal Rage is still one of my all tiem favorite fighting games. Intresting though, PRII corrected that.
My first real introduction to Primal Rage was just in this last year when I was given free reign over my brother-in-law’s Genesis, & I learned one thing about the controls really quickly:
Do not play Primal Rage with a pad…the press-release controls makes playing on a pad near impossible…it certainly isn’t fun.
IMO this is the game IG should work on next once they decide they are done with KI for a while. If anyone can bring back the amazingness that is PR it’s them lol
There was a games show on TV that used to run in the UK called Gamesmaster, not sure if it was shown internationally. One episode featured Primal Rage where this kid lost to his button mashing nan lol I remember thinking I couldn’t wait for it to come out. Such a shame the second game was cancelled, is there a playable version of it at all?
I’ve seen a low quality video of a testing arcade cabinet in some guy’s basement/garage where he has some build running, but it has problems, and clearly wasn’t intended for full use. I don’t have the link, but it was a Youtube video.
I wish that there were more games in the series, but I absolutely hate the human avatar concept; Primal Rage should only be about fighting dinosaur gods, in my opinion.
I have to agree, while you can play as the gods by pressing “up” and you will be able to play as them for the entire match, I do find the human concept unfitting. The fact that you could even play dino gods and beast gods and only those is what separated it from most games. Not everyone will find appeal to it but playing as only dino/beasts is what gave Primal Rage ts own identity in the fighting game genre.
Quick question guys on Primal Rage which would you say is the best console version? I’ve been adding to my collection recently and would like an original Primal Rage but not sure which version was the best so to speak?
I’ve played the Snes version, the Sega Genesis verison and the PlayStation version. If you have an original Xbox, PlayStation 2 or a GameCube, you could find an arcade version of it in midway arcade treasures.
The Sega genesis version is good but you could only get the best experience with a 6 button controller.
The PlayStation version has more graphical accuracy but you should play it on a console that will load the game faster. The super Nintendo does not much going for I but it also plays well to.
If Microsoft decided that they would bring back and reboot this game as an XBOX Exclusive, that would be huge but it won’t happen.
While we may never get another Primal Rage game, all my brother and I can do for now is make tributes to it:
here’s a few trailers my bro and I did for our fight series, done the same way we did for KI:
Sadly things have been slow for us, so we’re edging out what we can.
If we DO get a new PR game however I just want one thing: NO PLAYABLE HUMANS. Let Primal Rage be its own thing by having prehistoric monster gods fight it out.
I agree, because tthat was Primal Rage’s selling point and adding playable humans takes that away.
It sure turned me away from PRII
Now while playable Humans was in PRII you could actually play as the gods from the start fof the math.
During the character sleect screen you can activate each god by pressing up and highlight the avatar and their god will be their for slection.
So fi you wanted to play as Diablo for example, you would have to highlight Sinjin, press up then you unlock Diablo.
I’d like the humans to do a little more than previously, though; I know you could eat the worshipers for health, but what if there are specially-dressed worshipers which give some sort of bonus? Kind of like the gems in some of the old Marvel/Capcom games?
Speed boost, slow time, damage boost, whatever.