In Primal Rage, a meteor strike has devastated the Earth; technology has ceased to exist, civilization has been utterly reduced to rubble, and humans have regressed into tribes of Stone Age dwellers. Into this new radiation-scarred world, primitively referred to as "Urth", primordial rainforest has covered the land, and numerous new species have evolved.

Out of their ranks, seven creatures emerge who wage war for control over the new world; they are torn between those who wish to keep peace on Urth, and those who attempt to plunge the world into further chaos for their own benefit. These creatures have otherworldly or supernatural abilities. The Primal Rage trading cards that were distributed along with the toyline presented each creature as a god of an aspect of nature, as in life and death, fire and ice. There are four of the good Virtuous gods and three evil Destructive gods. The character Sauron, God of Hunger, is marked as a "Virtuous Beast" despite the fact that his in-game ending displays an image of him devouring humans. In fact, the creatures eating humans is a basic part of the gameplay.

The Virtuous Beasts

The following are the good guys that make up this group:

• Armadon (known as Spike in the proto version) - The God of Life. Armadon fights to defend Urth and prevent its destruction from the hands of the Evil gods. He is a semi-bipedal dinosaur with Styracosaurus-like head and limbs, a series of spikes in his back, spikes on his knees, and a tail whose tip is a combination of an Ankylosaurus' tail club and a Stegosaurus' thagomizer. According to the description on the package for Armadon's action figure, his species is "Tristegasauratops". Armadon has the easiest combos, but has a short reach. His domain is the Hollows and his worshipers appear dressed in light green rags.

• Blizzard (known as Kong in the proto version) - The God of Good and Virtue. Blizzard is one of two ape-like beasts. He was frozen in a glacier for millennia and was released by the meteor. He lived high up in the mountain and descended to the ground when threatened. A noble and heroic yeti-like beast resembling Mortal Kombat's Sub-Zero, Blizzard wishes to undo the damage caused to Urth by both the meteor and the warring gods. Many of his abilities focus around the manipulation of ice and cold. Blizzard is listed as the leader of the Virtuous Beasts, and his animal power, age-old wisdom and freezing projectile moves make him a powerful character. His species is "Apsidius". His domain is the Cliff, and his worshipers wear blue.

• Sauron - The God of Hunger. Resembling a large Tyrannosaurus, he can dish out the most damage of all the Dino-Beasts, but he's also the slowest. Sauron's immortality only lasts while he devours human flesh, as he suffers from an insatiable appetite. In spite of this, he is not evil, but the anti-hero of the group. His species is "Taranodon". His "Stun Roar" is an energy beam utilized in a manner akin to Godzilla's nuclear breath and his "Primal Scream" casts an energy shield as an offensive attack. His tail attacks are somewhat easier to use than his bites. His domain is the Cove, and his worshipers are clad in purple clothing.

• Talon - The God of Survival. Talon is based on a Deinonychosauria. His species is "Velocisaurus". Talon is the patriarch of a huge family of similar dinosaurs and is fiercely protective of it. It is for their sake that he plunges into the war. Talon is the fastest character in the game and an excellent jumper. Talon is also the shortest character, and numerous ranged attacks by taller enemies will simply miss him. He is also the only character in the game who does not have a projectile attack. His domain is the Strip, and his worshipers are dressed in gray.

The Destructive Beasts

The following are the bad guys that make up this group:

• Chaos - The god of decay. The second of the two ape-beasts, Chaos was formerly a scientist/witch doctor that was transformed into his current state by accident and was forced to be imprisoned in his own filth for eons. Chaos is known as the crudest and most vile of all beasts, with moves that involve farting and vomiting at his opponents. His "Golden Shower" fatality (where Chaos dissolves the flesh from his victim with a jet of acidic urine) was deemed so disgusting that the game was pulled from the market and replaced with a version with this fatality censored. His domain is the Ruins and his worshipers appear dressed in yellow. His species is "Apsidius".

• Diablo - The God of Evil and destruction. Diablo resembles a red Tyrannosaurus. This flame-spewing demonic dinosaur wishes to reduce Urth into a nightmarish, magma-filled hell, where he will indulge in his desire to torment all living beings on the planet for all eternity. He is nearly identical to Sauron's graphic model, albeit somewhat smaller and with a different color scheme. Diablo is quick on his feet and is an excellent distance fighter but is somewhat weak in close range. He is the leader of the Destructive Beasts, and hopes to burn the whole world in flames for all time. His domain is the Inferno, and his worshipers are covered in red clothes. His species is "Taranodon".

• Vertigo: The Goddess of Insanity. Vertigo, a unique beast based with a body resembling that of a dromaeosaurid dinosaur and a neck and head resembling a King Cobra. She is one of the Evil Destructive Beasts. She has the longest reach. The storyline of the game states that her imprisonment on the Moon forced the other dino-beasts into suspended animation until the meteor impact. Vertigo plans to enslave the entire planet forever by stripping every single human of all individuality and free will. Her domain is the Tomb, which resembles Stonehenge, and her worshipers dress in cyan. Her species is "Cobronicus".

As originally printed in an issue of GamePro in 1995, there is evidence to suggest that each character is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a fighter from the original Mortal Kombat. The individual traits, personality, and special moves of each character resemble those of a counterpart in the Mortal Kombat lineup. Armadon's power of electricity is like Raiden. Blizzard has freezing attacks that disable the opponent like Sub-Zero. Diablo has a fatality where he breathes fire on the opponent which burns their skin, leaving a skeleton like Scorpion. Talon's aerial kick resembles Liu Kang's flying kick. Sauron has moves which produce shadows, similar to Johnny Cage. Finally, the barbaric nature and cannonball move of Chaos is comparable to Kano.

Also, the concept of two fighters sharing near identical appearances (in this case, Sauron and Diablo, or Chaos and Blizzard) resembles that of Scorpion and Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat. A similar technique was applied to Ken and Ryu of Street Fighter II.

This game was tributed in the "Game Over" episode of Dexter's Laboratory, in which Dee Dee and Dexter play a Primal Rage parody, "Primal Fighter". Dexter's character of choice was a Sauron-lookalike, while Dee Dee favored the Blizzard lookalike.

As with other bloody U.S. based fighting titles of the time (most notably Mortal Kombat), Primal Rage sparked considerable controversy due to its violence level, depicting gory fatalities and the live devouring of humans. Though it was a bloody game, Primal Rage was rated "T" for Teen, yet that did not stop its critics from lumping it together with the Mature rated Mortal Kombat. To appease the critics, the game was withdrawn, re-programmed and re-released several times. Later arcade incarnations of "Primal Rage" included a "Gore/No Gore" toggle switch which, when flipped to the "No Gore" setting, disabled the use of Fatalities, the eating of humans, and all of the game's blood. Home console ports of "Primal Rage" retained all of the game's original content however, which was more than enough to continue the controversy surrounding the game. According to Victar's Primal Rage FAQ (section 7.4) the June 1996 issue of GamePro confirms that Ellie Rovella of Gilbert, Arizona became enraged when her 11-year-old son bought and played Genesis' Primal Rage, using GamePro's strategy guide to execute Chaos' golden shower/urination fatality. Rovella was so outraged, she not only returned the game, but also launched a grass-roots campaign. Ironically the Super Nintendo version, in which the particular fatality was removed entirely, displaying a "No Cheeze!" symbol (a sign that was generally used to notify the player that he or she had performed an illegal combo) at the top of the screen if it was attempted, was also pulled from the shelves.

Primal Rage is notable for several things:

• The 2.3 revision introduced new moves, combos (by moving the joystick while pressing one of both buttons) and fatalities into the existing game as well as the intro. This made Primal Rage the first arcade game ever to upgrade and add brand new content to its existing ROM many months after its release. This contrasts games such as Mortal Kombat 3, wherein different versions were released as the game was continuously improved to fix many glitches and errors. Mortal Kombat 3 would follow this trend with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 later.

• Primal Rage was one of the first games in which players could trigger mini-games in the middle of a match such as Volleyball without having to use extra credits or modes.

• A board game marketed towards kids was released called "Primal Rage: Rage on Urth!". It was distributed by toy company Playmates.

• Primal Rage was the first fighting game to show the damage percent after a combo was done (MK3 later incorporated this).

Primal Rage was featured on most game systems of its time.

PlayStation

This port has long loading times, a 3D intro, and fewer frames of animation for each character than the arcade version. Combo names are displayed like the arcade version.

Sega Saturn

This port is much like the PlayStation, except the sprites are larger and have more colours. The loading times are similar. This port features 3D intros of one character with narration whenever facing them in Arcade Mode. Combo names are absent. There was an early alpha of this port released onto the internet.

3DO

This port is much like the Saturn, except it lacks the 3D cutscences, intro, and shadows. Also, it has much smaller sprites.

Atari Jaguar CD

This port is based on the 3DO, except it has short loading times.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

This port censors Chaos' golden shower fatality. This version also doesn't shrink the evil palette swaps (i.e. Sauron - Diablo) and lacks the ending picture. The combos are easier, but the gameplay is slower. This port features a few additions, such as Vertigo's fatalities each have different colored rings.

PC / MS-DOS / IBM PC

These ports feature different sound effects, larger sprites and all the frames of animation from the arcade version. The game CD included three different editions of the game, one for systems with 4 MB RAM, another for 8 MB and one for 16 MB, each with increasing fidelity to the arcade game.

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive

This version was based on version 1.7, thus the new additional fatality, special moves, sounds, and new animations were removed. It has more animation than the SNES version, but less vibrant color. There is also an exclusive Easter Egg on the Cheat menu that says "Okay, right?" When this is selected, if the player chooses Diablo, his followers will be replaced with a Devil that uses the head of Probe Entertainment's former CEO and founder, Fergus McGovern. Regardless if Diablo wins or loses, Fergus will jump up and down in celebration.

Sega 32X

Based on the Genesis/Mega Drive port, the sprites are larger and have more colours. It has rerecorded music and new voice clips. The "Okay, right?" cheat is not present in the cheat menu.

Game Boy

This port removed Vertigo and the humans. Every character has 2 attacks, 4 specials, and 1 fatality. Chaos' fatality has been added back, but replaced the pee with vomit. The music also has been cut down to 3 tracks - Armadon, Diablo and Chaos' songs. This is the only port not rated T for Teen but rather, strangely, is rated K-A for Kids to Adult.

Game Gear

The same as the Game Boy version, but with color, blood, and Chaos' golden shower is the same as the arcade.

Amiga

The Amiga version features 8-bit characters, and smaller sprites, giving players big spaces to move around. There are also new sound effects and screen-shaking effects.

M.A.M.E / Midway Arcade Treasures

See ROM Encryption below

Master System

The latest Primal Rage port. It only has 3 characters: Sauron, Blizzard, and Chaos.

The Primal Rage design team implemented an unusual and largely unknown security method into the arcade machine's coding that prevented the full features of the game from becoming active. As a result, the game has never been accurately emulated on any platform.

Blood would be "censored" in that it would be colored a yellowish color with a brown shading. Also, fatalities could not be performed, and many special moves were not available, most notably characters with "Pouncing" moves could not land on the victim (Sauron's leaping bone bash, and Chaos's flying buttocks slam. Diablo's pulverizer has this problem though it can be landed on Talon for some reason but none of the others). Another emulation problem was the player could no longer chain attacks which greatly decreased the chance of performing a combo. In the original arcade version, it was possible to repeat attacks such as Diablo's low 1 and standing 3+4.

This affects Midway Arcade Treasures 2 (Classics), which was expected to feature an arcade perfect rendition of the game, but provided a censored and incomplete version instead.

The original programming team has since moved on to other things. Some of the programmers have actually departed the electronic entertainment business altogether and could not be located for questioning regarding the game's security lock-outs. Others, who have been contacted, expressed no interest in unlocking the ROM BIOS for freeware distribution or security corrections. Thus, no ROM exists for Primal Rage that is not censored in some way.

By 1995, Atari had begun production of Primal Rage's sequel, simply titled Primal Rage II. The game, however, was never released even though a test arcade cabinet briefly appeared playable at the Golf Land arcade in Sunnyvale, California. A dragon-like boss, which was rumored by video game magazine Gamepro to be implemented in a future release of the original Primal Rage, was the main antagonist. Though the game never came to be, the story was later adapted into a novel called Primal Rage: The Avatars.

The game was to feature new characters that took on the form of humans and were called the Avatars. Another prehistoric fighter which took the form of a Smilodon named Slash Fang (originally called Saber Tooth; he has been around as long as the other gods have, but he never fought for any land) was also planned to appear in the game as well. A boss monster known as Necrosan (what appears to be a living dragon skeleton) which was originally planned for the original game was promised to appear. The original characters were going to remain as well.

The plot centered around in the years after the gods fought again. It turns out the meteor that crashed on Urth was actually an egg and hatches a being known as Necrosan. The gods fight it but their efforts become useless. Necrosan then imprisons them in a state of semi-suspended animation, forms minions of his own and starts to wreak havoc on Urth. The gods then choose human Avatars for themselves that take on a human form. The Avatars fight the minions of Necrosan, release the gods from their prison and battle Necrosan. The warriors would be Xiao Ming, avatar of Slashfang; Malyssa, avatar of Vertigo; Arik, avatar of Sauron; Keena, avatar of Talon; Shank, avatar of Chaos; Sinjin, avatar of Diablo; Kaze, avatar of Blizzard; and Tor, avatar of Armadon.

Much anticipation centered around the upcoming game. Unfortunately, it wasn't the same for the production. The game didn't get very far in production and Atari felt that the game wouldn't generate enough sales. They later announced the cancellation though not many people knew about it. After that, Primal Rage's popularity died down. A supposedly finished machine of this was shown at the California Extreme 2001 show. The machine had the original board and most of the original art.

In recent years, posthumously screen shots have been released on the Internet of what was finished for the game and what was made of the game has also been passed around. Also, the characters of Slash Fang and Necrosan were released with the other god characters in the short-lived Primal Rage action figure series.

When Primal Rage II was cancelled, Atari allegedly felt it necessary to somehow present the story for the sequel in one form or another. Thus, in 1997, a novel called Primal Rage: The Avatars, written by John Vornholt, was published by Boulevard Books. The book's plot tells about what happened to the dinosaur gods 65 million years ago, and then moves into the main story of the gods' reign on Urth renewed, but then the beast Necrosan appears. The book focuses as well on fleshing out the world of Primal Rage, and does so by bringing "the Avatars" to the forefront of the story, they being the humans chosen by their respective gods to be their shamans or other titles of nobility.

A number of details to the backstory of Primal Rage are made clear in The Avatars. According to John Vornholt's novel the events in Primal Rage take place in the year 1000 AC (After Cataclysm) or about the year 3000 AD according to the Gregorian calendar. The battles of the dinosaurs are referred to as "The Primal Rage". In the novel, the spell used to imprison the dinosaur gods is called the Bonds of Forbidding. Necrosan the skeletal dragon (who is referred to as Necronus on the introductory page) reactivates the Bonds of Forbidding to entrap the gods.

Sirius Entertainment published a 4-issue comic book mini-series based on the game from 1996-1998. While issue #1 featured color interior art, the low-run published issues #2-4 featured black-and-white interior art.

When the Primal Rage video game was out, there were also action figures made for the creatures of Primal Rage each including their own follower.