@@animezilla4486 Yeah, but imagine it as a Third person brawler like War of the Monsters or the Override games. But with dinosaur blood and grungy graphics.
Holy shit, you just cleared up a childhood mystery for me. I loved the fuck out of that toyline as a kid but I had no idea who the cool zombie dragon was and why he wasn't in the game. I legit kept renting the game because I was convinced he had to be in there somewhere. It drove me nuts.
@@andrewdennis0 I miss it. It's wasn't a demo or a trial version just the full game for the weekend two for like 5 dollars, helped me dodge a couple of bad buys.
ruclips.net/video/jMynNFZbDJg/видео.html&ab_channel=GallopingGhostArcade you could actually play primal rage 2 , this arcade managed to get one of the few prototype boards made before cancelled (arcade is still active and bigger)
@@silverreaps6803 na, it would suck ass, and thats not even mentioning the lack of stop motion scans as sprites, and definite charm of some 90s fighting games
They also had awesome cabinets. I remember the one by me was one of those giant white flat screen jams with the super loud sound system. You could hear "RAGE" the second you walked into the place. www.vintagearcade.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/primal_rage_arcade_game.jpg
What I enjoyed about the primal rage game is the part of the story where you win a new piece of land. As opposed to MK in which it was just a new fighter on the tower. It gave it more of a story and reason for you to win.
That's the first thing I thought! I miss my dreamcast. Boy did Sega fuck up bad to still go bankrupt after it came out. It was way better than the competition.
You can blame their insistence on releasing stupid add-ons for the Genesis, screwing over retailers with the Saturn reveal, and focusing almost exclusively on arcade ports with Saturn and Dreamcast for the Dreamcast’s demise. The Dreamcast was definitely a unique console with a lot of potential but Sega made a LOT of mistakes up to that point that culminated in their bankruptcy.
@@Petey0707 The irony is capitalism doesn't work if there is no more competition, it's essentially fake. Just a few big corporations pumping out the same crap over and over with nobody around able to compete against them with new ideas.
I'm honestly shocked at how good it looks. Its honestly hard to believe it's a game and not a cartoon. Edit: I just realized what it is: it's like a playable Robot Chicken episode
Yeah, something got really wrong with that one. I think that Matt is aware, since he already showed some footage of it on other videos when mentioning games that went wrong.
I was gonna say there probably wasn't much of a story there outside of "mid-tier licensed anime game trying to do far more than what it's low budget could realistically achieve", but I am curious as to the who and why they thought that game was a good idea.
Ed Boon did a poll of people wanted a monster verse fighting game after the release of Godzilla vs Kong. Should such a game come to fruition, it could theoretically be a test bed for a Prinal Rage reboot.
Test bed my ass. Do a Primal Rage kaiju game where we tear ass across post-apocalyptic stone-punk Earth, crashing through the ruins of old towns and squashing chanting worshipers flat with our massive clawed feet.
I read "Primal Rage: The Avatars" when it came out. I remember it being fun as hell with lots of gore and monster stuff. It's basically the plot of the game, mainly following Bizzard's avatar as he goes across Urth to try and recruit the other avatars to fight Necrosan, who's sealed the Gods away. And since I read it around the same time, Necrosan had Beast Wars Megatron as his voice in my head, with the rest of the cast as the other Gods. It was pretty awesome.
All things considered, it's pretty amazing what the Primal Rage II team was able to accomplish in just 24 months. I'm trying to wrap my head around the sheer amount of work that went into all that stop motion animation.
Wait Neatherrealm/WB owns the Primal Rage license? Wait does that mean that tweet from Ed Boon about a Kaiju fighting game was referring to a Primal Rage reboot? 👁
@@jerm70 I would love to have Primal Rage Back but I doubt it will never happen, also part of what made it so unique was the Stop Motion with real models, if a new game with just 3D graphics was released it would never feel like Primal Rage. Also the term Kaiju after the success of Godzilla vs Kong is sure to mean a game about Godzilla universe. My only hope would be an indie studio making a game with the same style and stop motion.
"I'm sure a lot of you have PTSD from MK3 Shang Tsung." Ah yes, nothing quite like getting snapped out of a dreaming state and into fight or flight mode from such a simple line.
Having been born in 1990, Primal Rage was right up my alley as a kid, along with Jurassic Park & Godzilla. I had action figures, & remember a couple of the toys they released in anticipation for Primal Rage 2. What a nostalgia trip this was.
“What Happened” reminds me of those really good game docs on early G4. “There’s no way this will get cancelled.” Midway: “Anyway, so we started blastin’.”
I only played Chaos because he had a fart attack and I thought that was funny. Also because monkey. How the devs interpretted that into meaning we prefer human characters is a mystery to me.
For me it was a success thing. I liked the dinosaurs better but I got further with the apes. They kinda screwed up with the human thing imo, made it too demanding
Fun Fact: In an issue of Dragon Magazine (D&D Magazine) they gave stats for Blizzard, Talon, and Vertigo both as Creatures and as gods that Clerics could get spells from. They get the exact thing they're god of wrong, but it's still cool. It's issue 223 if interested.
I grew up around the Galloping Ghost. They always had unique and hard to find game cabinets, so when they got a hold of Primal Rage II a group of us went the first weekend open to the public. HOLY CRAP there were so many people there and the air of excitement was like Christmas morning when you were 8.
God I would love a Wha Happun for Jump force or Balan Wonderworld. Though my inner Sonic fan is screaming for some insight on just what happened to Balan.
Of all the games cancelled over the years, this one always hits the hardest for me. I remember having this game, the toys, and everything I could get my hands on about it. I really wish they decided to either reboot or at least finish this series. I'd love to see it on modern consoles that could handle its specs.
I miss this franchise, such a lost opportunity. I was one of those kids who liked to hang out at the arcade back in my teens and fighting games were my jam. Although Street Fighter 2 was what got me into the genre it got kind of got stale after playing it to death for like a year straight which is when I turned to some of the more niche and interesting titles that sprouted up afterward. Even though Primal Rage was mechanically a bit overly simple, I loved the aesthetic. Along with Dark Stalkers, Primal Rage was truly different from the rest of the SF II imitations that flooded the market. When I heard they were making a second one I was so looking forward to it... and then it just never came. Seeing this video finally solved the mystery of how such cool and popular arcade game ended up getting the axe. With a second installment that solved the problems the first game had with a lack of depth in the fighting mechanics and character roster, Primal Rage could have become one of the truly great fight game franchises, but instead, it was axed by corporate greed and short-sightedness never to see the light of day again.
@@badvibesforever711 you mean Midway Arcade Treasures which they made Three on the PS2 with the first Primal Rage being on the second volume along with most of the Mortal Kombat games.
I’m glad that we got a happier edition of “What Happened” today, though I do wish that the devs were able to see this game release when it was originally intended. Since you’ve been talking about monsters a lot recently, how about a “What Happened” on the “Dark Universe” franchise, aka the multiverse franchise that never was?
This is one of the reasons I'm always pretty uneasy of large industry purchases (like what just happened with Bethesda and Microsoft). I like diversity in the gaming industry. Would be cool if Mortal Kombat and Primal Rage coexisted for greater consumer options.
I would have simply made it another Mortal Kombat game and tried to work it into the greater mythos. "Oh yeah, there's this other realm. Whatever. These are the gods that don't return Raiden's calls"
@@Tareltonlives In a story filled with alternative timelines, this would have been the one where the gods of Urth are actually part of another so-called Earthrealm that Raiden failed to protect.
without regulations and anti-lobbying measures, smaller and smaller companies will be bought out by larger corporations, until utter monoplies form. This is what happens when capitalism isnt regulated enough. 30% or more of the entire entertainment industry is owned by disney, and they arnt gonna stop growing. Unless something is done about this, expect the entire country to be owned by and ruled by only a 2 or 3 corporations sometime in the future.
Man this was an amazing video. Fair play to Gruntzilla94 for making a MAME version of the game playable. Nice to know Chris Tang is doing well and that people still enjoy Primal Rage.
(FYI: this is a pretty long comment) Great video. Really enjoyed watching it and it was very informative as well for those who don't know about the game or what happened with it. Still is very cool that this game can be played on the actual hardware at GGA and through emulation. When I was in the middle of emulating the first hurdle, the hard drive loading on it's own, I actually made my way to GGA to play the original machine to make sure that what I was playing emulation wise at the time was the same game since Primal Rage 1 was so bad due to protection. I was surprised the only difference I saw, other then the incorrect loading from time to time in emulation, was that on the actual game selecting the gods required something like 4 seconds and on MAME it was 2 seconds, before I even touched the source code for MAME btw. The hardware for anyone wanting to know is a variant of the Sony ZN1, a coin-op version of the Playstation 1. This particular variant for Primal Rage 2 is special since it replaces the standard 2MB of RAM for a whopping, at the time, 8MB of RAM to hold the information for I believe the sprites mainly since it used a very interesting way of streaming the sprites off the HDD. The gods were actually disabled from appearing from the game in this test build. Years ago when I was looking in the program roms to find out how certain parts of the game where loading and worked I found the character select array which contains the entire character select screen defaults, the default at this time would be both avatars and gods visible from the start of the game. Meta would need to hold up for and Necrosan was likely pressing up a certain number of times since the game counts the number of times up is pressed on character select and resets it whenever the player presses other directions just like when the Necrosan bit is lifted to allow up to change the players character to Necrosan and other directions disabled the bit and removed Necrosan from up. However there is something that is stopping the game from reading the entire array and only reading the last 8 bits which are the human avatars. If I remember correctly, it was because the devs wanted to see how players would react to the human cast. This version of the game is also not the most complete version the games source code contains the actual final build of the game which Chris Tang called the final lab build of the game adding new stuff and fixing glitches such as Talon's "Slide from Hell" as many dub Talon's slide in the current build we have. The source code is out there but who knows if it will ever be actually built and the resulting ROMs dumped. We can dream though about what was in that final version. To you Matt, I really like these what happened videos. I watched your KI one first and now this one was recommended to me so I just had to watch it. Keep up the great work!
I had a pal that worked for Midway in the 90’s. I can confirm that management and marketing drove him crazy. Management would say “make a Mortal Konbat game but not actually Mortal Kombat”. My friends team had so many great game ideas that got killed by lack of vision. I guess that’s why they are no longer making games.
@@MattMcMuscles scientific accuracy is more important than cool factor at the end of the day -- but as far as cool factor goes, i think dinos with feathers CAN look cool Anyway, this video has me wallowing in equal parts nostalgia and depression. I always wished there'd been more Primal Rage...well, anything! D: It was such a fun game....
Funny enough; my brother and I both received Primal Rage toys when we were young as gifts (I got Sauron and he got Vertigo). I do vividly recall my brother reading off the back of the toys' packaging "Coming soon, Primal Rage 2!" Years went by and I wondered if the game would ever be released before it just kinda drifted into the undertow of the tides of my long term memory. I'm so glad you covered this, it's an interesting story.
Thinking of other dinosaur centric series that could get covered, the Dino Crisis trilogy would make a good Wha Huppand episode I'd imagine. The first game being made as an RE clone (from the same company that MADE RE originally), to it's weird arcadey sequel, to it's scorned final third entry that has left the series nearly forgotten in the sands of time.
I totally had that novelization for Primal Rage. I had always thought that Necrosan and the avatar stuff was something they had made up for the book, which now makes so much more sense since it was for a game that never saw the light of day.
Poor guy two year's of hard work gone..I bet his eye's lid up when he saw the primal rage two arcade cabinet working in action over 15 year's later. God willing it will come back officially since arcade home cabinets have been making a huge combat lately. Nothing beats the arcades. I can't believe they're was even a generation not experiencing them growing up..such a crime.
Loved this video! Also, as I understand, the programmers messing with emulation for Primal Rage 1 ended up making all of the home consoles different - some lacked combos, others lacked blood and fatalities, in order to make sure the arcade cabinet remained the one true version. I could be getting some details wrong
This is the GOAT, the game cover, the characters, the music, the gore, the arcade and consoles OMG I wish we could get a new one or remastered version with online multiplayer.
For the record, I played as Blizzard because he was a gorilla version of Sub-Zero and because the ice powers made him a lot less overly gory, not because he has hands and feet.
Indeed the change to humanoids (even if optional) seems really misguided to me. Like there could be a million reasons like yours why the gorillas were chosen over the dinosaurs.
@@Rodrigo_Vega Yeah, I took a liking to this game because it felt so unique. Giant dinosaurs (and two gorillas) instead of humans. While I disagree with PR2's decision to focus on the human avatars, I'm glad they still included the dinosaur gods as playable characters, too. Vertigo is my favorite.
I don't care this is a year old. You made me remember my slashfang action figure as a little kiddo on a failed float trip that flooded. Core memories for sure.
Dude, I am so lucky. I was born in 83 and my dad worked for an Arcade Cabinet Distributor (Brady) where he repaired Arcades as well as built new ones for a show floor where they sold the newest games to local Arcades/Bars/Movie Theatres etc. My brother and I were some of the first to play games like Primal Rage as well as other classics like MK 1-3, Afterburner, Killer Instinct, NBA Jam, Multiple TMNT games and so on. No cell phones, no social media. What a time to be alive
Didn't Ed Boon tweeted a question to public about a giant monster fighting?. I think the question was and I might be paraphrasing:" is there's enough giant monsters to make a fighting game?"
I swear, just a month or two ago I was looking up "Matt McMuscles Primal Rage" and was a little disappointed you hadn't covered it. Then we get two videos in a short span of time. Sweet uncanny nostalgia.
I completely forgot about that game did it ever come out? I used to be big into EQ back in the day so I just erased EQ next from my brain apparently lol.
@@traceyrinaldi4759 it was completely scrapped if I recall correctly. I'd love to see a breakdown of the whys. I loved playing the original. Great memories.
I read the Primal Rage novel, though at the time I didn't know about Primal Rage, I just bought it because I saw the Red T-Rex fighting the Blue Giant Gorilla on the cover. I don't remember much from it, except the lady avatar for Vertigo was thirsty af, and Chaos was his own avatar since he was originally a scientist who used Blizzard dna to transform himself into Chaos, while every other god picked one of their worshippers to be their avatar.
It's horrible that no Primal Rage toys or games are made today and are barely talked about. The game and toys deserve a lot more. I just started playing the Super Nintendo game again and it makes me so happy.
I'VE READ THAT PRIMAL RAGE NOVELIZATION! I got it at a library sale when I was a kid because I thought it looked cool and I liked the game. It's kind of interesting; in addition to the avatars in question, it added the background that each of the monsters in the game are worshipped as gods, each with their own tribes of followers. I don't remember much beyond that, but I know I read the whole thing and enjoyed it at the time.
From my little country in latin america, I've never heard of this franchise, but it's so lovely to see how it's become a core memory and a big source of nostalgia for a lot of people :0
I never knew about this! A really great watch and a nice ending in that the game can properly be appreciated. Have you ever thought about covering the near decade it took for Phantasy Star Online 2 to be released in the west? Especially when it originally had a western release planned and also shown at gaming events before launch.
I just saw that game I was confused. I played on Dreamcast when it came out saw screens for a sequel in Dreamcast magazine then Dreamcast died I’m glad it at least exists I got no plans of really playing it now tho
Wow. While I was privy to Primal Rage during the heyday of arcades, I had no idea so much went into its production. Thanks again for another educational vid, Matt.
I remember finding out about PRII's existence through MUGEN. What a wild story this is, and a really sad way to die for Primal Rage, which deserved so much better. Still one of the best fighting games of the 90's, and I'll stand by that.
I miss Primal Rage. Lately, Ed Boon has been asking a lot of questions about people's interest in a "giant monster fighting game". He's gotten pretty good feedback so far. I'm really hoping to see some kind of Godzilla, Primal Rage type fighter in the next few years. And Netherrealm is damn good at spectacle.
One of my favorite things about this video is Chris Tang talking about how he had his feelings about his project clouded by the corporate goons that axed it. I think this happens to a lot of us in the corporate world where the success of failure of our work gets judged by management, and while it might make sense from a business perspective, I think it's important for our mental health to remember that our work and our labor has value independent of the pencil pushers. If you do your best to pour your skills and energy into a product, be proud of that work, and don't let some management hacks define your self-worth. I'm happy for Chris that he was able to get that feedback and take a second, brighter look at Primal Rage 2.
Shame we never got this back in the 90’s. The cabinet actually showing up in my area back then would’ve been more like a fever dream since the first one only showed up at my local Walmart but it being even remotely available would’ve been amazing!
They had a full page ad in GamePRO for a contest where you would have your likeness included in the sequel. I wanted to win that SO bad when I was a kid.
Stellar work as always, Matt. Lately, I’ve been yearning to replay one of my favorite franchises from my younger years, Armored Core. Yet I can’t help but wonder, what happened there? Any chance you’d consider doing an episode on the non-assassin AC series?
They made action figures for Primal Rage 2, which was the only reason I knew it existed. I have Slashfang and Necrosan. Never knew it got actual gameplay level development? I did see Necrosan's fighting a few years ago and was amazed it got that far without ever being released. For a Mortal Kombat clone it was definitely the most unique.
This one hurt. Us kids "knew" Primal Rage was getting a sequel, and even saw glimmers of it in game magazines talking about its development. Then... as my generation slowly came of age, the game never appeared...
Primal Rage was one of my favorite arcade games and I remember seeing in the late 90's a gaming magazine that featured a whole page dedicated to Primal Rage 2 featuring a awesome art of the new human avatar fighters. Haven't been able to track down which magazine it was (the cover feature some Ghostbusters art) nor that art that was featured in it and I must had been one of the few 90's kids who vividly remembered Primal Rage 2 before even looking it up on the then "New" internet.
I don't know how many people would be interested in this as much as me, but I would love to see an episode of this focused around Myst Online: Uru Live. Basically, Uru Live was going to be an ongoing MMO kind of thing set in the world of the Myst games. It would have let players socialize in an online community, and it would have continually added new worlds for people to explore and solve puzzles together. It was notoriously ambitious and expensive, which is why it crashed and burned, but it also looked it could have been really unique and cool. It does have a small but devoted community of fans desperately trying to keep it alive, but it still failed pretty badly.
I love it when a video game that was almost lost to history gets salvaged by dedicated fans. Matt, you should totally do more videos about games that were rescued from oblivion like this. The Bionicle game by Sapphire Inc. was also a great example: ruclips.net/video/ThpxKCT6EL0/видео.html And, while it's not quite the same thing, Ross from Game Dungeon hunted down the soundtrack to the Rama PC game and released it at CD quality: ruclips.net/video/Pu4n5YXPaMQ/видео.html
Funny how Midway bought out and dissolved Atari arcade and then Midway got bought and dissolved by WB
Karma.
They fucking deserved to get dissolved. FUCK Midway for murdering Primal Rage 2.
And WB was bought out by AT&T which will soon dissolve them also lol
There's always a bigger fish
-Qui Gon Jinn
What goes around comes around
Rage fans: "I'll give you money for this."
WB: "No."
[Zack Snyder Fanboys:Restore the little things.]
[WB Exec:You got it dude.]
@@animezilla4486 Yeah, but imagine it as a Third person brawler like War of the Monsters or the Override games. But with dinosaur blood and grungy graphics.
Yup,sounds accurate...
WB: but let us nickel and dime you for seasonal content cosmetics in games we didn’t put any effort into
Us: no, FU
Holy shit, you just cleared up a childhood mystery for me. I loved the fuck out of that toyline as a kid but I had no idea who the cool zombie dragon was and why he wasn't in the game. I legit kept renting the game because I was convinced he had to be in there somewhere. It drove me nuts.
Glad you can finally put that mystery to rest. XD
Wow I forgot all about renting games
Damn, he wasn't lying when he mentioned unlocking a core memory.
@@andrewdennis0 I miss it. It's wasn't a demo or a trial version just the full game for the weekend two for like 5 dollars, helped me dodge a couple of bad buys.
ruclips.net/video/jMynNFZbDJg/видео.html&ab_channel=GallopingGhostArcade
you could actually play primal rage 2 , this arcade managed to get one of the few prototype boards made before cancelled (arcade is still active and bigger)
This and Bloody Roar both need revivals like Killer Instinct.
Bloody roar was that shit Long was my dude I played that for months straight on ps1
@@johndewberryiii9925 My hands can still feel the sore from practicing Bakuryu combos on a pc keyboard through emulation since I didn't own a PS1.
@@ThePeasantRock16 Clayfighters was honestly mediocre even back then. I have the game and played it recently....didnt age well at all lol
@@ThePeasantRock16 Honestly get Stoopid Monkey and the guys who did KI (2013) involved and I would totally play the Clayfighter revival.
I wouldn’t mind a new Eternal Champions
Fun fact: Mortal Kombat 11 has a Primal Rage arcade cabinet on the far left-hand side of its Retrocade stage.
Never noticed
Seriously? I have to go take a look now. Although I'm usually too busy getting my a** handed to me to notice
@@silverreaps6803 na, it would suck ass, and thats not even mentioning the lack of stop motion scans as sprites, and definite charm of some 90s fighting games
That is fun🤓
Didn't ed boon say they'd be doin more than just mk sooner or later? 🧐
Midway: This sequel can’t exist
Galloping Ghost: You see, now that’s where you’re wrong.
Damn right
DLC just like FIFA $$$$
@@markoz673bajen8 what are you on about?
@@punklover99 Joe mama
@@markoz673bajen8 are you high or just ignorant
The game had so much to love: giant monsters, post-apocalypse and brutal finishers. The whole Primal Rage universe needs a revival!
They also had awesome cabinets. I remember the one by me was one of those giant white flat screen jams with the super loud sound system. You could hear "RAGE" the second you walked into the place.
www.vintagearcade.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/primal_rage_arcade_game.jpg
What I enjoyed about the primal rage game is the part of the story where you win a new piece of land. As opposed to MK in which it was just a new fighter on the tower. It gave it more of a story and reason for you to win.
No gonna lie that Chris Tang had a sick dreamcast jacket.
I was just saying that to myself lol
That's the first thing I thought! I miss my dreamcast. Boy did Sega fuck up bad to still go bankrupt after it came out. It was way better than the competition.
You can blame their insistence on releasing stupid add-ons for the Genesis, screwing over retailers with the Saturn reveal, and focusing almost exclusively on arcade ports with Saturn and Dreamcast for the Dreamcast’s demise. The Dreamcast was definitely a unique console with a lot of potential but Sega made a LOT of mistakes up to that point that culminated in their bankruptcy.
"They brought the competition so they can no longer compete."
Disney in a nutshell.
Capitalism in a nutshell.
EA does this shit a lot, too. As does Blizzard and now Bethesda is getting their hands dirty, Crying shame.
@@Petey0707 The irony is capitalism doesn't work if there is no more competition, it's essentially fake. Just a few big corporations pumping out the same crap over and over with nobody around able to compete against them with new ideas.
Any business really
@@KuroNoTenno No, they were right the first time. Capitalism.
ISPs, Intel, Nvidia, hedge funds, so many examples
The stop motion in these titles is fantastic. It's like playing a Ray Harryhaussen film.
Some one to Google today!
XD
I'm honestly shocked at how good it looks. Its honestly hard to believe it's a game and not a cartoon.
Edit: I just realized what it is: it's like a playable Robot Chicken episode
nice name drop 🔥
Seth Green is a p@dophile
I keep saying that any remake should keep the stop-motion look and lean into the Harryhausen thing.
That was actually really smart 6:21 a good way to listen to feedback but not isolating players who loved fighting as beasts
We need a Jump Force - What Happened?
I want a Balan Wonderworld Wha Happun
Yeah, something got really wrong with that one. I think that Matt is aware, since he already showed some footage of it on other videos when mentioning games that went wrong.
I was gonna say there probably wasn't much of a story there outside of "mid-tier licensed anime game trying to do far more than what it's low budget could realistically achieve", but I am curious as to the who and why they thought that game was a good idea.
Low budget + Rushed Development
@@ZeroZXDev J Stars was a much better game. Jump Force is basically that game but somehow worse lol
Find someone who talks about you the way Matt McMuscles talks about Kaiju.
The dream
Same my dream boyfriend
Was that supposed to rhyme?
@@plasmaoctopus1728 That's not what I intended but I suppose it does.
Ed Boon did a poll of people wanted a monster verse fighting game after the release of Godzilla vs Kong. Should such a game come to fruition, it could theoretically be a test bed for a Prinal Rage reboot.
Neatherrealm rebooting Primal Rage in anyway would be a dream come true. No studio on the planet is more qualified.
@@Babylauncher3000 maybe Iron Galaxy. But I’m 90 percent sure that Warner brothers owns the IP
@@ShadowknightEX Getting the IP often feels like 90% of the struggle.
Test bed my ass. Do a Primal Rage kaiju game where we tear ass across post-apocalyptic stone-punk Earth, crashing through the ruins of old towns and squashing chanting worshipers flat with our massive clawed feet.
I read "Primal Rage: The Avatars" when it came out. I remember it being fun as hell with lots of gore and monster stuff. It's basically the plot of the game, mainly following Bizzard's avatar as he goes across Urth to try and recruit the other avatars to fight Necrosan, who's sealed the Gods away. And since I read it around the same time, Necrosan had Beast Wars Megatron as his voice in my head, with the rest of the cast as the other Gods. It was pretty awesome.
I did that a lot as a kid, give the characters the voices of characters from shows.
All things considered, it's pretty amazing what the Primal Rage II team was able to accomplish in just 24 months. I'm trying to wrap my head around the sheer amount of work that went into all that stop motion animation.
Man it would’ve been dope to see Reptile as a secret fighter in Primal Rage
Or Riptor from Killer Instinct.
@@darthcinema4262 both
@@jesusismyhelp9005 Even better
I can imagine reptile going from his ninja form to his anamality form
Lu kang's dragon form?
Wait Neatherrealm/WB owns the Primal Rage license? Wait does that mean that tweet from Ed Boon about a Kaiju fighting game was referring to a Primal Rage reboot? 👁
Hmmm that would be super smart right now
The only reason they have the Ip was to kill the game, Boon was probably referring a future Godzilla game
@@Rolfhn Who knows. Having a refreshing IP that isn't Mortal Kombat or Injustice might be something that Ed Boon would like.
@@jerm70 I would love to have Primal Rage Back but I doubt it will never happen, also part of what made it so unique was the Stop Motion with real models, if a new game with just 3D graphics was released it would never feel like Primal Rage. Also the term Kaiju after the success of Godzilla vs Kong is sure to mean a game about Godzilla universe. My only hope would be an indie studio making a game with the same style and stop motion.
@@RyuEnGamer Here ya go: Atari Games -> Midway -> Williams -> IP's to WBIE (via bankruptcy) -> AT&T
"I'm sure a lot of you have PTSD from MK3 Shang Tsung."
Ah yes, nothing quite like getting snapped out of a dreaming state and into fight or flight mode from such a simple line.
Having been born in 1990, Primal Rage was right up my alley as a kid, along with Jurassic Park & Godzilla. I had action figures, & remember a couple of the toys they released in anticipation for Primal Rage 2. What a nostalgia trip this was.
I think you and I are the same person.
“What Happened” reminds me of those really good game docs on early G4.
“There’s no way this will get cancelled.”
Midway: “Anyway, so we started blastin’.”
Yay. This is the first time the "Yea that makes sense" isn't meet with an ire of rage.
I only played Chaos because he had a fart attack and I thought that was funny. Also because monkey. How the devs interpretted that into meaning we prefer human characters is a mystery to me.
Mmm... Monkey.
as a kid, I played a lot of diablo. I wasn't a fan of apes punching. I like the idea of trex chomping and blood gushing.
I think to quote that gag in Nostalgia Critic with the corporate suits, "But the chart says......" LOL
I love monsters fighting much more. Vertigo was the one I liked as a kid since she was snake-like.
For me it was a success thing. I liked the dinosaurs better but I got further with the apes. They kinda screwed up with the human thing imo, made it too demanding
Fun Fact: In an issue of Dragon Magazine (D&D Magazine) they gave stats for Blizzard, Talon, and Vertigo both as Creatures and as gods that Clerics could get spells from. They get the exact thing they're god of wrong, but it's still cool. It's issue 223 if interested.
The balan vid probably won't happen for a while until we get more info
I grew up around the Galloping Ghost. They always had unique and hard to find game cabinets, so when they got a hold of Primal Rage II a group of us went the first weekend open to the public. HOLY CRAP there were so many people there and the air of excitement was like Christmas morning when you were 8.
I’ve played this a few times at Galloping Ghost and I’ve really enjoyed my time with it. A Primal Rage collection with both titles would be awesome.
Of all the game franchises to get a reboot/remake this needs to be one
God I would love a Wha Happun for Jump force or Balan Wonderworld. Though my inner Sonic fan is screaming for some insight on just what happened to Balan.
Granted.
Of all the games cancelled over the years, this one always hits the hardest for me. I remember having this game, the toys, and everything I could get my hands on about it. I really wish they decided to either reboot or at least finish this series. I'd love to see it on modern consoles that could handle its specs.
Least you can play it now.
I still have my toys.
I miss this franchise, such a lost opportunity. I was one of those kids who liked to hang out at the arcade back in my teens and fighting games were my jam. Although Street Fighter 2 was what got me into the genre it got kind of got stale after playing it to death for like a year straight which is when I turned to some of the more niche and interesting titles that sprouted up afterward. Even though Primal Rage was mechanically a bit overly simple, I loved the aesthetic. Along with Dark Stalkers, Primal Rage was truly different from the rest of the SF II imitations that flooded the market. When I heard they were making a second one I was so looking forward to it... and then it just never came. Seeing this video finally solved the mystery of how such cool and popular arcade game ended up getting the axe.
With a second installment that solved the problems the first game had with a lack of depth in the fighting mechanics and character roster, Primal Rage could have become one of the truly great fight game franchises, but instead, it was axed by corporate greed and short-sightedness never to see the light of day again.
This has become one of those titles that I've only known through you lol
I remember there being a game on the ps2 that had a bunch of these weird old games on them
@@badvibesforever711 you mean Midway Arcade Treasures which they made Three on the PS2 with the first Primal Rage being on the second volume along with most of the Mortal Kombat games.
Lol that's most of these videos for me.
you guys sure know how to make a guy feel old.
Primal rage was popular back in the days. Im surprised the franchise died
Chris Tang is also the "Boom, Tetris for Jeff" guy.
I’m glad that we got a happier edition of “What Happened” today, though I do wish that the devs were able to see this game release when it was originally intended.
Since you’ve been talking about monsters a lot recently, how about a “What Happened” on the “Dark Universe” franchise, aka the multiverse franchise that never was?
This is one of the reasons I'm always pretty uneasy of large industry purchases (like what just happened with Bethesda and Microsoft). I like diversity in the gaming industry. Would be cool if Mortal Kombat and Primal Rage coexisted for greater consumer options.
At least maybe now Bethesda games will have less bugs in their games.
I would have simply made it another Mortal Kombat game and tried to work it into the greater mythos. "Oh yeah, there's this other realm. Whatever. These are the gods that don't return Raiden's calls"
@@Tareltonlives In a story filled with alternative timelines, this would have been the one where the gods of Urth are actually part of another so-called Earthrealm that Raiden failed to protect.
@@jamesstuart5877 Oh, I like that idea
without regulations and anti-lobbying measures, smaller and smaller companies will be bought out by larger corporations, until utter monoplies form. This is what happens when capitalism isnt regulated enough. 30% or more of the entire entertainment industry is owned by disney, and they arnt gonna stop growing. Unless something is done about this, expect the entire country to be owned by and ruled by only a 2 or 3 corporations sometime in the future.
Man this was an amazing video. Fair play to Gruntzilla94 for making a MAME version of the game playable. Nice to know Chris Tang is doing well and that people still enjoy Primal Rage.
(FYI: this is a pretty long comment)
Great video. Really enjoyed watching it and it was very informative as well for those who don't know about the game or what happened with it. Still is very cool that this game can be played on the actual hardware at GGA and through emulation. When I was in the middle of emulating the first hurdle, the hard drive loading on it's own, I actually made my way to GGA to play the original machine to make sure that what I was playing emulation wise at the time was the same game since Primal Rage 1 was so bad due to protection. I was surprised the only difference I saw, other then the incorrect loading from time to time in emulation, was that on the actual game selecting the gods required something like 4 seconds and on MAME it was 2 seconds, before I even touched the source code for MAME btw. The hardware for anyone wanting to know is a variant of the Sony ZN1, a coin-op version of the Playstation 1. This particular variant for Primal Rage 2 is special since it replaces the standard 2MB of RAM for a whopping, at the time, 8MB of RAM to hold the information for I believe the sprites mainly since it used a very interesting way of streaming the sprites off the HDD.
The gods were actually disabled from appearing from the game in this test build. Years ago when I was looking in the program roms to find out how certain parts of the game where loading and worked I found the character select array which contains the entire character select screen defaults, the default at this time would be both avatars and gods visible from the start of the game. Meta would need to hold up for and Necrosan was likely pressing up a certain number of times since the game counts the number of times up is pressed on character select and resets it whenever the player presses other directions just like when the Necrosan bit is lifted to allow up to change the players character to Necrosan and other directions disabled the bit and removed Necrosan from up. However there is something that is stopping the game from reading the entire array and only reading the last 8 bits which are the human avatars. If I remember correctly, it was because the devs wanted to see how players would react to the human cast.
This version of the game is also not the most complete version the games source code contains the actual final build of the game which Chris Tang called the final lab build of the game adding new stuff and fixing glitches such as Talon's "Slide from Hell" as many dub Talon's slide in the current build we have. The source code is out there but who knows if it will ever be actually built and the resulting ROMs dumped. We can dream though about what was in that final version.
To you Matt, I really like these what happened videos. I watched your KI one first and now this one was recommended to me so I just had to watch it. Keep up the great work!
I had a pal that worked for Midway in the 90’s. I can confirm that management and marketing drove him crazy. Management would say “make a Mortal Konbat game but not actually Mortal Kombat”. My friends team had so many great game ideas that got killed by lack of vision. I guess that’s why they are no longer making games.
Can’t wait for the invasion of “Do Balan WonderWorld” comments.
That being said, please do Balan Wonderworld.
Edit: So guys, we did it
please do Balan Wonderworld ²
Was going to come to the comment section for this exact thing. So yes, please do Balan Wonderworld because what the fuck happun?
I'll join that pile-on.
Matt, please do Balan Wonderworld.
He needs more time for that awful game to stew.... but I bet in a year or 2 he'll probably do it
@@mckstellar1005 not now, but soon... the McMuscles will rise
Feathered dinosaurs are cool
hahah
The feathered dinosaurs look cooler than the old ones. I swear this is a hill I will die on.
Stay on that hill with your turkeys
@@MattMcMuscles scientific accuracy is more important than cool factor at the end of the day -- but as far as cool factor goes, i think dinos with feathers CAN look cool
Anyway, this video has me wallowing in equal parts nostalgia and depression. I always wished there'd been more Primal Rage...well, anything! D: It was such a fun game....
Hell yeah, feathers for the win.
Matt: The rights now belong to Warner Brothers...
My Boyfriend watching with me: PRIMAL RAGE 3 WITH GODZILLA FROM GODZILLA AS A GUEST CHARACTER!
A reboot with an updated art style of this would be sick and I'd buy the heck out of it
Fully agree
"i too know what it's like to have a dream that I'll never achieve"
-Bender B. Rodriguez
Episode Idea: Telltale Games.
Just, the company in-general. I feel like there's enough bumbles, mismanagement, and controversy to make a full episode.
yeah.
Funny enough; my brother and I both received Primal Rage toys when we were young as gifts (I got Sauron and he got Vertigo). I do vividly recall my brother reading off the back of the toys' packaging "Coming soon, Primal Rage 2!" Years went by and I wondered if the game would ever be released before it just kinda drifted into the undertow of the tides of my long term memory. I'm so glad you covered this, it's an interesting story.
That line 'you're wrong and also lame' had me laughing my ass off at 4am lmfao I'm gonna be saying that to people fr days
I should really give this a go! I’ve heard about it for my whole life but never played it.
What the- hey DangerVille! It would mean the world to me if the two and only Alastair and Jacob made a video on this franchise!
Thinking of other dinosaur centric series that could get covered, the Dino Crisis trilogy would make a good Wha Huppand episode I'd imagine. The first game being made as an RE clone (from the same company that MADE RE originally), to it's weird arcadey sequel, to it's scorned final third entry that has left the series nearly forgotten in the sands of time.
The creator is swimming in success tho, apparently lawyers garners more money than dinosaurs, and at a fraction of the budget
I totally had that novelization for Primal Rage. I had always thought that Necrosan and the avatar stuff was something they had made up for the book, which now makes so much more sense since it was for a game that never saw the light of day.
Most dinos have feathers
"The future is now old man"
Poor guy two year's of hard work gone..I bet his eye's lid up when he saw the primal rage two arcade cabinet working in action over 15 year's later. God willing it will come back officially since arcade home cabinets have been making a huge combat lately. Nothing beats the arcades. I can't believe they're was even a generation not experiencing them growing up..such a crime.
Loved this video! Also, as I understand, the programmers messing with emulation for Primal Rage 1 ended up making all of the home consoles different - some lacked combos, others lacked blood and fatalities, in order to make sure the arcade cabinet remained the one true version.
I could be getting some details wrong
As someone who has worked with stop motion I can tell you it is a extremely stressful and long process but it's really cool in the end
They really did make a novelation of anything.
This is the GOAT, the game cover, the characters, the music, the gore, the arcade and consoles OMG I wish we could get a new one or remastered version with online multiplayer.
I have indeed read this novel, and its ... fine. Very tie-in booky. I'll have to see if I can dig it up again for a proper read-through.
For the record, I played as Blizzard because he was a gorilla version of Sub-Zero and because the ice powers made him a lot less overly gory, not because he has hands and feet.
Indeed the change to humanoids (even if optional) seems really misguided to me. Like there could be a million reasons like yours why the gorillas were chosen over the dinosaurs.
@@Rodrigo_Vega Yeah, I took a liking to this game because it felt so unique. Giant dinosaurs (and two gorillas) instead of humans. While I disagree with PR2's decision to focus on the human avatars, I'm glad they still included the dinosaur gods as playable characters, too. Vertigo is my favorite.
I also liked blizzard because he had a cool victory pose
Im so happy this had a happy ending for the guy. Hearing how the game got cancalled was heartbreaking 😢
I don't care this is a year old.
You made me remember my slashfang action figure as a little kiddo on a failed float trip that flooded.
Core memories for sure.
That stop motion is incredible. What a bonkers way to animate a game.
Dude, I am so lucky. I was born in 83 and my dad worked for an Arcade Cabinet Distributor (Brady) where he repaired Arcades as well as built new ones for a show floor where they sold the newest games to local Arcades/Bars/Movie Theatres etc. My brother and I were some of the first to play games like Primal Rage as well as other classics like MK 1-3, Afterburner, Killer Instinct, NBA Jam, Multiple TMNT games and so on. No cell phones, no social media. What a time to be alive
Didn't Ed Boon tweeted a question to public about a giant monster fighting?.
I think the question was and I might be paraphrasing:" is there's enough giant monsters to make a fighting game?"
I swear, just a month or two ago I was looking up "Matt McMuscles Primal Rage" and was a little disappointed you hadn't covered it. Then we get two videos in a short span of time. Sweet uncanny nostalgia.
I'd love to see an episode on EverQuest Next.
I completely forgot about that game did it ever come out? I used to be big into EQ back in the day so I just erased EQ next from my brain apparently lol.
Or Champions of Norrath
@@traceyrinaldi4759 it was completely scrapped if I recall correctly. I'd love to see a breakdown of the whys. I loved playing the original. Great memories.
I was big into Ultima but we all know what happened there
@@ChrisAnonymous Agreed. I would love another Champions of Norrath entry too.
I read the Primal Rage novel, though at the time I didn't know about Primal Rage, I just bought it because I saw the Red T-Rex fighting the Blue Giant Gorilla on the cover. I don't remember much from it, except the lady avatar for Vertigo was thirsty af, and Chaos was his own avatar since he was originally a scientist who used Blizzard dna to transform himself into Chaos, while every other god picked one of their worshippers to be their avatar.
It's horrible that no Primal Rage toys or games are made today and are barely talked about. The game and toys deserve a lot more. I just started playing the Super Nintendo game again and it makes me so happy.
I'VE READ THAT PRIMAL RAGE NOVELIZATION! I got it at a library sale when I was a kid because I thought it looked cool and I liked the game. It's kind of interesting; in addition to the avatars in question, it added the background that each of the monsters in the game are worshipped as gods, each with their own tribes of followers. I don't remember much beyond that, but I know I read the whole thing and enjoyed it at the time.
Man, I loved playing this with my sister. I can only imagine how much we would have played a sequel
From my little country in latin america, I've never heard of this franchise, but it's so lovely to see how it's become a core memory and a big source of nostalgia for a lot of people :0
Yeah. Looking back i never noticed as a kid that there was never a sequel lol.
I'd love to see Dead Or Alive next
Props to Galloping Ghost for getting one up and running.
Man... Primal rage was so wonderful. I LOVED the move Input style too...
I never knew about this! A really great watch and a nice ending in that the game can properly be appreciated. Have you ever thought about covering the near decade it took for Phantasy Star Online 2 to be released in the west? Especially when it originally had a western release planned and also shown at gaming events before launch.
I just saw that game I was confused. I played on Dreamcast when it came out saw screens for a sequel in Dreamcast magazine then Dreamcast died I’m glad it at least exists I got no plans of really playing it now tho
Love you videos mate, takes me back to my childhood!
I would love to find some of those puppets. They look amazing.
Wow. While I was privy to Primal Rage during the heyday of arcades, I had no idea so much went into its production. Thanks again for another educational vid, Matt.
I hope that Primal Rage would get a reboot in a anime style artwork.
Thank you for making this episode.
I remember finding out about PRII's existence through MUGEN. What a wild story this is, and a really sad way to die for Primal Rage, which deserved so much better. Still one of the best fighting games of the 90's, and I'll stand by that.
I miss Primal Rage. Lately, Ed Boon has been asking a lot of questions about people's interest in a "giant monster fighting game". He's gotten pretty good feedback so far. I'm really hoping to see some kind of Godzilla, Primal Rage type fighter in the next few years. And Netherrealm is damn good at spectacle.
Have you done a Wha Happun about Sleeping Dogs? That game was a true masterpiece and deserved a sequel more than just about any GTA game
One of my favorite things about this video is Chris Tang talking about how he had his feelings about his project clouded by the corporate goons that axed it. I think this happens to a lot of us in the corporate world where the success of failure of our work gets judged by management, and while it might make sense from a business perspective, I think it's important for our mental health to remember that our work and our labor has value independent of the pencil pushers. If you do your best to pour your skills and energy into a product, be proud of that work, and don't let some management hacks define your self-worth. I'm happy for Chris that he was able to get that feedback and take a second, brighter look at Primal Rage 2.
I find it funny that there are characters called "Diablo" and "Blizzard". They should have made another character named "Wow".
Shame we never got this back in the 90’s. The cabinet actually showing up in my area back then would’ve been more like a fever dream since the first one only showed up at my local Walmart but it being even remotely available would’ve been amazing!
still waiting for _What Happened Shaq Fu_
They had a full page ad in GamePRO for a contest where you would have your likeness included in the sequel. I wanted to win that SO bad when I was a kid.
Stellar work as always, Matt. Lately, I’ve been yearning to replay one of my favorite franchises from my younger years, Armored Core. Yet I can’t help but wonder, what happened there? Any chance you’d consider doing an episode on the non-assassin AC series?
They made action figures for Primal Rage 2, which was the only reason I knew it existed. I have Slashfang and Necrosan. Never knew it got actual gameplay level development? I did see Necrosan's fighting a few years ago and was amazed it got that far without ever being released.
For a Mortal Kombat clone it was definitely the most unique.
Yes, I have actually read the book. In fact it was the very first book I was ever interested in reading outside of school.
Damn. I learned more stuff about Primal Rage 2 than I already knew and commented on with the Primal Rage video, thanks Matt!
The Quiet Man deserves to be talked about here on this show
This one hurt. Us kids "knew" Primal Rage was getting a sequel, and even saw glimmers of it in game magazines talking about its development. Then... as my generation slowly came of age, the game never appeared...
Primal Rage was one of my favorite arcade games and I remember seeing in the late 90's a gaming magazine that featured a whole page dedicated to Primal Rage 2 featuring a awesome art of the new human avatar fighters. Haven't been able to track down which magazine it was (the cover feature some Ghostbusters art) nor that art that was featured in it and I must had been one of the few 90's kids who vividly remembered Primal Rage 2 before even looking it up on the then "New" internet.
I don't know how many people would be interested in this as much as me, but I would love to see an episode of this focused around Myst Online: Uru Live. Basically, Uru Live was going to be an ongoing MMO kind of thing set in the world of the Myst games. It would have let players socialize in an online community, and it would have continually added new worlds for people to explore and solve puzzles together. It was notoriously ambitious and expensive, which is why it crashed and burned, but it also looked it could have been really unique and cool. It does have a small but devoted community of fans desperately trying to keep it alive, but it still failed pretty badly.
"DESPITE ALL MY I AM STILL JUST A RAT IN A CAGE "
- Smashing Pumpkins.
Um...
Primal Rage was one of the most obscure game I ever played as a kid. Thanks for covering this Matt.
I still pray for the day when Alex gets added back into Tekken 7
This is cool! I always loved Primal Rage as a kid and I hope that the renewed interest will see a resurgence with the series.
I love it when a video game that was almost lost to history gets salvaged by dedicated fans. Matt, you should totally do more videos about games that were rescued from oblivion like this.
The Bionicle game by Sapphire Inc. was also a great example: ruclips.net/video/ThpxKCT6EL0/видео.html
And, while it's not quite the same thing, Ross from Game Dungeon hunted down the soundtrack to the Rama PC game and released it at CD quality: ruclips.net/video/Pu4n5YXPaMQ/видео.html
Primal rage 2 looks absolutely gorgeous