Primal Rage — stories left

Primal Rage was released for arcades by Time Warner Interactive in August 1994, with two arcade cabinet variants: a standard 25" cabinet and a deluxe 33" cabinet.

To promote the home versions, Time Warner Interactive hosted a "National Primal Rage Video Game Tournament" at Six Flags Over Texas in October 1995.

It was nominated for the Video Software Dealers Association's "Video Game of the Year" for 1995, losing to Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest.

The Genesis version's reviewer complained that the controls are a straight translation of the arcade version's four-button control, making special moves needlessly awkward to execute, while the Super NES version's reviewer said the game was outshone by the Super NES version of Killer Instinct, which came out at the same time.

Mean Machines Sega gave the Genesis version a rave review, stating that the game is a "great beat 'em up which may have been beaten to its niche".

Sega Pros Mat Yeo commended Probe's work on the Genesis version but noted several missing features compared to the arcade original, stating that it fell short of capturing the "frantic fighting action of the coin-op".

Next Generation stated that the SNES version is "so average it hurts to watch, much less play.

GamePro similarly said that the 3DO version had the best graphics and sounds of any home version to date, but that "it still won't convert those who never took to the arcade original", though they had an overall more positive impression of the game.

Mega Funs Sandrie Souleiman praised the graphics and sound of the 3DO version but said that the PlayStation version was better.

Fun Generations Philipp Noack and Götz Schmiedehause commended the sound and gameplay of the 3DO version, but both said the visuals were better on the PlayStation version.

Likewise, MAN!ACs Oliver Ehrle commended the visuals and sound of the 3DO version but said that the PlayStation version was slightly better.

Mean Machines Sega gave the 32X version a positive outlook but stated that the game fell short when compared to others in the 32X library.

IGNs Levi Buchanan said that the 32X version paled in comparison to the arcade original.

GamePro assessed the Jaguar CD version as "one of the Jag CD's strongest" games.

They criticized the smaller sprites but said the game otherwise did an exemplary job of recreating the graphics and sound of the arcade version, and that the control with the Jaguar ProController is excellent.

VideoGames stated that the PlayStation version was not worth the asking price due to persisting gameplay issues from the arcade original.

AllGames Joe Ottoson criticized the Saturn version's visuals and sound design but commended its replay value, stating that "If you can bear the loading times and the unusual system for executing super moves, there's some interesting things to unearth."

After this reevaluation, Best Buy put every version of Primal Rage back on the shelves except for the Genesis version, which they said they would only sell if it were rated "M", even though most home versions of the game contain all the same fatalities and gore.

Time Warner PR director Tracy Egan said the publisher was not overly concerned about the Ellie Rovella controversy since Primal Rage, being a two-year-old arcade game, was already past its sales peak by the time Rovella started her campaign.

Ken Humphries, senior producer of the home versions of the original Primal Rage, said in an early 1996 interview that "Primal Rage 2 should come out in the arcades in September 1996.

However, the game did not get very far into production before being canceled, as Atari said that it wouldn't generate enough sales.

The game was to feature all seven gods from the original plus ten newcomers: a new dinosaur, a boss, and eight humans called the Avatars, that were the gods' surrogates on Urth, with the first game's characters meant to make a comeback as said gods.

With only two boards of the game considered to be in existence, a dump from the game's board had been circulating online for years, but no emulator had been able to run it, until in March 2017 it was revealed that an individual had created a modified version of MAME, named "MAME4RAGE2", making it able to emulate the game.

AllGames Brad Cook praised the arcade version's visuals, sound, gameplay, and replay value, stating that "This is a fun game and a good value at 25 cents per play with 25 cents to continue.

Mega Funs Stephan Girlich and Ulf Schneider commended the visuals but criticized the sound design.

Sega Pros Steve Hardy praised the visuals but criticized the complex controls due to the Game Gear's limited number of buttons.

GamePro gave more mixed reviews to the Genesis and Super NES versions, criticizing that the sprites are too small and the graphics in general are unimpressive, especially in the Genesis version.

However, they praised the combo system and character design and gave both versions an overall recommendation.

Sega Powers Dean Mortlock praised the visuals and replay value, regarding the Genesis version as "Another excellent conversion from Probe.

MAN!ACs Oliver Ehrle criticized the graphics and sound of the Genesis and Super NES versions.

Mega Funs Girlich and Schneider praised the SNES version's visuals and sound.

Hobby Consolass Sonia Herranz highly praised the gameplay, graphics, and sound design.

Jeuxvideo.coms Nuktos praised the presentation, gameplay, and sound but criticized the replay value.

Mega Funs Sandrie Souleiman praised the graphics and sound of the 3DO version but said that the PlayStation version was better.

GameFan praised the visual presentation of the 32X version, though the reviewers criticized the sound and lack of additional gore effects from the arcade original.

Hobby Consolas praised the sprite's quality and gameplay speed compared to the previous 16-bit versions.

They criticized the smaller sprites but said the game otherwise did an exemplary job of recreating the graphics and sound of the arcade version, and that the control with the Jaguar ProController is excellent.

In contrast, AllGames Colin Williamson commended the controls but criticized the downgraded visuals compared to the arcade original and loading times, stating that "It's sad that the Jaguar CD suffered such a horrible fate—but with games like this one, it's no big surprise.

GameFan praised the PlayStation version for being a near-arcade perfect port, and for the addition of a six-button control setup.

GameFan, as with the PlayStation version, commended the Saturn release for being a near-arcade perfect port but criticized the full-motion video sequences.

Mega Funs Sandrie Souleiman praised the visuals but criticized the sound design of the Saturn version.

AllGames Joe Ottoson criticized the Saturn version's visuals and sound design but commended its replay value, stating that "If you can bear the loading times and the unusual system for executing super moves, there's some interesting things to unearth."

A Mac OS port was also planned to be published on November 14, 1995, and advertised in Macworlds January 1996 issue.

The SNES port, developed by Bitmasters and released in both North America and Europe on August 25, 1995, has more detailed visuals compared to the Genesis release; however, Chaos's golden shower fatality was censored.

In the same issue of GamePro which described the 3DO version as the best port of the game, a different reviewer contended that the 32X version is the best one, with graphics comparable to the 3DO version's and controls which are easier than the 3DO's when using the six-button controller.

VideoGames stated that the PlayStation version was not worth the asking price due to persisting gameplay issues from the arcade original.

Time Warner PR director Tracy Egan said the publisher was not overly concerned about the Ellie Rovella controversy since Primal Rage, being a two-year-old arcade game, was already past its sales peak by the time Rovella started her campaign.

Sirius Entertainment published a 4-issue comic book mini-series based on the game from 1996 to 1998.

Issue #1 features color interior art, and the low-run published issues #2–4 feature black-and-white interior art.

The 32X port was developed by Probe Entertainment and first published in North America on November 14, 1995, and in Europe in March 1996.

The Amiga port was released only in Europe in December 1995, with visuals similar to the Genesis release.

The Saturn version of Primal Rage was the last version to be released.

Next Generation found that though the 3DO version accurately recreated the arcade version's graphics and sound, the visuals had become severely dated in the years since it was first released and the gameplay was never very deep to begin with.

After this reevaluation, Best Buy put every version of Primal Rage back on the shelves except for the Genesis version, which they said they would only sell if it were rated "M", even though most home versions of the game contain all the same fatalities and gore.

The game was to feature all seven gods from the original plus ten newcomers: a new dinosaur, a boss, and eight humans called the Avatars, that were the gods' surrogates on Urth, with the first game's characters meant to make a comeback as said gods.

With only two boards of the game considered to be in existence, a dump from the game's board had been circulating online for years, but no emulator had been able to run it, until in March 2017 it was revealed that an individual had created a modified version of MAME, named "MAME4RAGE2", making it able to emulate the game.

However, the game did not get very far into production before being canceled, as Atari said that it wouldn't generate enough sales.

When Primal Rage II was canceled, Atari allegedly deemed it necessary to somehow present the story for the sequel.

More than 1.5 million copies of the game were sold.