- NA release: 23rd November 1999
- PAL release: 26th December 1999
- JP release: N/A
- Developer: Acclaim
- Publisher: Acclaim
- N64 Magazine Score: 87%
Taking a departure from the usual single-player focused Turok games, Rage Wars is focused entirely on multiplayer, with a large amount of deathmatch arenas and multiple game modes. And in this game, you can finally be the raptor and claw up your enemies. There’s also a giant bug creature that you can play as, swiping or using a long distance acid attack.
In terms of singleplayer, there’s no proper campaign, however there is still an immense amount of stuff you can do, as long as you’re fine with fighting bots. Each character has their own set of scenarios to fight through, leading up to unlocking a new character (until you have them all). It’s a lot like Unreal Tournament.
The bots are passable, but limited in options. Higher difficulty bots just have more guns and ammo, and they’ll ignore some stuff (like mines). The real meat of the game is the multiplayer, but there’s still a good amount of fun to have on your own.
Rage Wars did end up being very lucky in a way: it was originally going to compete with Perfect Dark (which had a more sophisticated multiplayer, deathmatch scenarios, and a singleplayer campaign), so it ended up getting a Christmas period as the main multiplayer shooter.
One other interesting thing about Rage Wars was that it initially released with a bug that made one of the models impossible to collect, however, a revision was released and Acclaim offered the opportunity to send the game back for a replacement.
Fun
So it’s in the multiplayer game that Rage Wars really comes alive. For all the side-stepping, missile-ducking ability of the bots, they can never match the conniving brilliance of a fellow human, and the amount of time spent on Rage Wars’ controls and level layouts means it lends itself perfectly to countless hours of enjoyable deathmatching. The Monkey Tag, in particular, is hilarious, with longs periods of silent, tension-fille monkey hunting tempered by chaotic, all-out battles for his hide. And until you’ve watched a monkey’s body parts fountain into the air, you haven’t lived.
Mark Green, N64 Magazine #35
Remake or remaster?
Nightdive allowing their Turok engine to be used for a remaster would be nice.
Official ways to get the game.
There’s no official way to get Turok: Rage Wars
Europe
Japan
North America
N64 Games by Date
1997: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1998: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1999: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2000: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
I had this one in its day, and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t really have anyone to play it with so I relied on the bots. That left it at a bit of a disadvantage since I couldn’t really see it at its best
When I say I had no one to play it with – my friends would only play Goldeneye or Mario Kart. I couldn’t even get them to play Perfect Dark so Rage Wars had no chance
I’ve never played it, but I did always enjoy Turok 2’s multiplayer (however simple it may have been) and this is, from what I understand), essentially a fleshed-out version of that very same multiplayer mode from Turok 2 using the same engine, done very quickly as a way of making use of Turok 2’s existing assets. While I doubt that Nightdive Studios would ever bother to remaster this one, I’d be very glad to see it come to the Switch NSO service. The more multiplayer fun, the better! And an NSO release would also skirt around the one major flaw that always held this game back… the fact that it is essentially a multiplayer-only game (a tough sell, even in 2024).
Also worth noting that this was the first game produced by Acclaim Studios Austin, the studio that Iguana had turned into after most of the Turok 2 staff had already left to found Retro Studios in early 1999. A few remaining holdouts stayed at ASA until this game was finished, including one of Retro’s most important staff members… Mark Pachini (the director of Metroid Prime 1-3; who later attempted a coup before departing Retro in 2008 alongside Todd Keller (Lead artist) and Jack Mathews (Lead engineer) to found Armature Studio); who joined their colleagues in moving to Retro Studios as soon as Rage Wars was done. So this is the last game in the series to retain any of the DNA that defined the original Turok 1 & 2, as well as the Metroid Prime series.