Primal Pursuit

The Short Version:
If you’ve ever wanted to play a racing game that, instead of cars, has you riding animals, then Primal Pursuit will fulfill that niche desire, to superb effect. It’s as humorous as it looks, and it’s pretty damn fun.
For the astonishingly low price it’s at, I have no trouble recommending it to fans of the genre, as well as people looking for an enjoyable experience. Just be aware that it is a bit rough around the edges.
Pros:
Cons:
-Amusing concept
-Responsive driving mechanics
-Entertaining gameplay
-Striking visuals
-Fantastic race tracks
-No tutorial
-Awful collision that ruins the pacing
-Forgettable soundtrack
My Rating:
7/10 - Good
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Racing Through The Primal Wilds
Primal Pursuit is a third-person kart racer that, instead of racing on karts, has you competing on the backs of large beasts. It’s a concept that easily stands out in a perhaps overcrowded line of samey race titles, and it’s why I bought it in the first place. That, and the fact that it’s absurdly cheap for what it provides.
If there’s one word I could use to describe this game, I’d probably choose ‘amusing’. Almost everything about it is ridiculous and whimsical to the point that, regardless of what you end up thinking of it, you’re unlikely to forget about it for quite some time.
This eccentricity, however, goes far beyond Primal Pursuit’s presentation; it’s very much embedded into the gameplay as well. Exploding pineapples? Check. Tortoises shooting electricity? Check. Summon two Takin calves to tackle other racers? Check. Shoot solar beams as a lizard? Check. I could go on and on with this list; what I’ve said so far only begins to scratch the surface of what you can encounter.
Before I continue with the gameplay, though, I’m going to cover the visual elements. The game seemingly takes place around the Pleistocene period, something that’s reflected by the animals you can play as and the environments you race through.
Altogether, there are 12 race tracks, and each one of them is stunning to look at. Lush, densely packed forests alongside vast, open-ended outbacks and majestic canyons; no two tracks are the same, and the designers have put a lot of work and care into crafting these set pieces, despite knowing that most players will race through them without paying much heedence to their surroundings.
My only criticism for these levels is the lackluster soundtrack accompanying them. At first it isn’t really noticeable, but eventually it becomes repetitive and takes you out of the atmosphere. They also reuse the same few tunes throughout.
An aspect that quickly caught my attention was the presence of environmental obstacles that not only add to the challenge, but also help to give each race track its own identity. These range from massive boulders crushing anything in their path to giant mammoths trying to mind their own business.
The scale of some of these tracks is immense, as they can be relatively complex to navigate thanks to having multiple pathways to choose from. The sizes vary, with some being small enough to have five laps, whereas a few being so big they only have one.
Lastly, I really liked the game’s choice of animal characters. The proportions of them are all over the place - the frog is the size of a walrus, and the tortoise is bigger than a mandrill - but their designs are accurate and look pretty good.
You Can Tokyo Drift As An Emu
Right from the get-go you are given access to three different game modes: grand prix, online, and time trials. Grand prix has three cups, each with four races, and can be played through varying difficulties; the higher the difficulty, the faster you go and the fewer lives you have.
Time trials is basically the same mode you’d find in most kart racers; you race for the fastest time. I’ve never been a fan of that sort of thing, so I didn’t touch it. As for the online multiplayer, it’s dead, but you can host your own lobbies for your friends.
Regardless, grand prix is likely where you’ll spend the most time. Once you’ve completed all three cups, you gain access to ‘Wild Mix’ which, in my opinion, is the best feature in the game. It takes all the craziness that’s already there and dials it up to the max, randomising everything for a crazy experience. Sometimes it’ll change the speed, and other times it’ll make everyone play as an emu. It’s wacky, it’s unpredictable, it’s fun.
As a whole, the gameplay is surprisingly entertaining and works pretty well. Each character has a selection of three unique abilities which can change the way a race plays out, and the fact that you can only unlock characters by leveling up by completing races gives a sense of progression and increases replayability.
My problem with it is that there is next to no guidance whatsoever. It desperately needs a tutorial explaining the mechanics. When you have a game as insane as this, with lots going on at once, you need something to help clarify things. Instead, you’re left to your own devices to figure things out, which is a pretty bad first impression.
Alas, once you’ve worked through that initial hurdle, the “driving” is pretty intuitive, and the controls feel responsive for the most part. Here enters another major problem though: hitting walls. Unless your driving is pitch perfect, you’re going to collide with something, and when you do, any number of things can happen.
The most common is that you lose speed, as well as adrenaline, which allows you to accelerate. This can happen even when hitting a small rock. Other times your character can get stuck, making it impossible to maneuver. Unfortunately, because the race tracks are designed the way they are, this is going to happen to you a lot, and it turns what was once a pretty fun experience into an absolute nightmare of a battle. It’s worse on some races than others, but it’s a heavy detriment to an otherwise solid game.
In Conclusion
Kart racers are one of my favourite genres thanks to their fast-paced, action-packed gameplay and interesting, intricately decorated race tracks, and I’m happy to say that even despite its silliness, something I think adds to the experience, Primal Pursuit succeeds in both of those departments. I highly recommend it to fans of the genre.
For those who do not consider this their usual type of game, there’s still plenty of content here for anyone to enjoy, and if you wish to play with friends, there’s functionality for that as well.
I just wish that extra time went into refining those rough edges that really hold the gameplay back. It has all the right ingredients; it just needs to be balanced and baked out correctly. Nevertheless, for the price it’s at, it’s worth every penny.
Technical Details:
My PC Specs:
Operating System: Windows 10
Processor (CPU): AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Graphics Card (GPU): Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
Memory (RAM): 16GB
Resolution: 1920x1080
Performance: Consistent 60FPS from start to finish with no stutters.

Followed Primal Pursuit through early development and managed to snag a tester key! (Have now Purchased)
I Played this game with my Niece and Nephew, both them and myself had an absolute blast playing this game!
The animal racing style and themes are an awesome spin on the the classic arcade racer, with each animal (A total of 8) having a set of 3 unique and interesting abilities of their own. These abilities each of the animals possess, alongside the diverse range of maps that contain tricky obstacles such as the big boulders thrown from giants and hefty spike traps, really helped make our races more interesting and broke that monotony you'd have in most other games in this genre. My niece was smitten with the 'chubby walrus,' and wouldn't change from him all afternoon.
Can't wait to sink more hours into this game with my friends now that it's out for everyone and I might even play with my niece and nephew again; if they decide to stop beating me. ;) 10/10

Primal Pursuit is an indie animal racer that supports up to 12 players and is a heap of fun with friends or in one of its offline modes such as the single player tournaments (against bots) or time trials (competing for leaderboard positions). It has an impressive art style with a nice selection of maps and unique animal's to choose from. Each racer has their own set of abilities and playstyle, not to mention that the roster itself is made up of a pretty interesting, non-generic selection of species.
Had a lot of fun with this game so far would certainly recommend it for groups of friends looking for something to play together. Looking forward to the future content and updates to be added from these devs, especially some things to spend the in-game coins on to really round out the progression experience after unlocking all of the animal clans via level-up rewards.

If you are of a fan or have kids that love racing and movies like Ice Age they will certainly enjoy it, especially with up to four (4) player split screen. It's a fun little game, it may not be perfect but it's definitely worth a try for $2 and you also get to help a small studio create and improve their future projects.

Game has some solid mechanics and ideas. Could use some polish, and there were a few bugs that left one of our players with no boost. Definitely worth trying out for fun.

I a wacky game for a laugh with friends, a bit buggy but fun

Totally worth for the money, it's interesting and got multiplayer split/screen , game controller support and achievements. Its just more fun with beer and friends so big YES!