If you’re like me, and you have fighting game roots that run deep into the Genesis days, you might remember the bevy of laughably gory Mortal Kombat knockoffs that permeated the market in the mid-90s. One of the more unique titles in that list of knockoffs was Atari’s kaiju fighter, Primal Rage. While your mileage may vary as to how good (or bad) a game it was, it stood out amongst the rest, surprisingly innovated some things that still stand today in the fighting genre, and even had a large marketing campaign based around it, including boardgames and action figures (the latter of which I owned the entire set of).
Given its popularity, a sequel was sure to follow. And Primal Rage 2 was definitely in development, albeit making some controversial moves such as moving human characters to the forefront in place of the kaiju that made it infamous. The changes seemed to have given Atari cold feet, as the game never materialized and footage of it has been scarce for years.
Until now. An arcade in Illinois called the Galloping Ghost Arcade has managed to acquire one of the final prototype builds of Primal Rage 2, and has it open to the public. The game seems to be in at least a near-complete form, and although this might just be my inner child talking, it actually looks surprisingly fun. The arcade says it plans to hold tournaments for the game in the near future, which means I’ll finally get the SUPER HYPE HIGH LEVEL Primal Rage play I’ve been craving for years.
Honestly, I never thought I’d see the day when we’d see a working build of this game in action, and given how important this series was to me as a young Sega fan, it almost makes me a bit misty eyed. Is anyone else getting the same feeling? Or do you guys think it should’ve stayed lost to time?
Check out a three hour gameplay stream the arcade has uploaded under the cut!
Source: Arcade Heroes
