Primal Rage was an arcade smash over a year ago, but its popularity has
greatly suffered from the competition of games such as Killer Instinct and
Tekken 2.  It again was hurt by the rushed release of mediocre home
translations.  But, for those of you who still like the game, the PSX
finally has the first arcade perfect translation.
 
The gameplay for PR is the same as the arcade.  You hold down one or more
buttons while performing a move sequence.  The moves are easy to pull off
using an Ascii Fighting Stick or other such peripheral, but standard PSX
controllers can put strains on the thumbs after only a few rounds.
 
PR is your standard bitmapped fighter, so moves and combos are very limited.
However, the game has a number of named combos programmed in, so when you
are able to discover a cool combo, you are rewarded with something more than
just a "5 hit, 18%" message.
 
PR's graphics are a nice conversion of the arcade graphics.  The animation
is just as fluid as on the arcade machine.  Unfortunenly, the music and
sound leave a lot to be desired.  The grunts and screams are annoying at
best, and the music is uninspired (but still well recorded.)
 
Like any fighting game, PR's replay value is determined by two-player
combat.  With the addition of two new modes of combat (Tug-of-war, where
both dinos share one life bar, and Endurance, where each player chooses a
number of dinos), the two-player aspect of play is greatly increased.  It is
fun, even after a month of playing the game, to fight my roommate in a
tug-of-war grudge match.
However, one-player mode gets boring FAST.  The AI is very limited, and only
uses the dinos most powerful moves over and over.  The style and variation
of AI systems found in games like Tekken and Toshinden in non-existent.
 
One of the nicest new additions is the opening FMV.  Like all FMV's, it
doesn't contribute to gameplay, but it is well done, and good for showing off.
 
The bottom line...   If you liked Primal Rage Arcade, you will like Primal
Rage PSX.  If you didn't like the arcade, you won't like the PSX version.
If you never played the arcade game, rent or borrow this game before
shelling out the cash for it.
 
        Ratings (Out of 10)
GAMEPLAY: 7
GRAPHICS: 7.5
SOUND: 4
MUSIC: 5
REPLAY VALUE: 7
VALUE FOR MONEY: 6
OVERALL: 6.5
 
                                        - BARAKA (MARK SWEAT)
                                          baraka@uoknor.edu