Primal Rage

Primal rage is an attempt to compete with Mortal Kombat in the gory shock-value fighting game sub genre. It is doomed to fail right out the gates as it copies from the first MK game (the less impressive Kombat) and not its far-superior sequels. It, like the first Mortal Kombat, was somehow successful in the arcades. Unlike Mortal Kombat, not much success came when the game was ported to just about every system.

While decently animated, the characters are boring and practically solid colored. The backgrounds are bland and boring while the little people that cheer you on look terrible.

The "improvements" over the Genesis version are so minor that to tell the difference you literally have to swap between the two cartridges several times to pick up on the slightly different life bar and oh so slightly less jaggy outlines on the characters. None of the graphical upgrades merit any pats on the back to the developers, unless it's with a bat.

This is the probably second ugliest game on the 32x, beaten only by the horrendous Motocross Championship.

The sound is also pitiful, once again identical to the Genesis version. There are no dynamic sounds in this game; almost all of the attacks sound similar and subdued. They even make the fart attack sound boring, something that doesn't seem possible.

Controls prove to be barely adequate and quite simple; combos not being a series of button presses as much as holding in several buttons at the same time. Jumping to avoid attacks proves too be quite a chore. Luckily the challenge level isn't high enough for the poor controls to affect you that much; you can get pretty far into the game pressing only the punch button.

I don't recommend this game to anyone, the only reason you should own this is if you are cursed with the desire to own every 32x game ... as I am.