Play Cosmic Carnage Online

Cosmic Carnage came out in 1994 for the Sega 32X, developed and published by Sega. It was one of those early attempts to show off what the add-on could do, a fighter released when the hardware was still trying to prove itself. The game featured a cast of alien warriors duking it out in a tournament for freedom, a simple setup that fit right in with other mid-90s arcade-style brawlers.

You control one of several fighters, each with their own basic moves and a clunky grappling system. The main goal is to deplete your opponent's health or knock them out of the arena's low-gravity environment. Matches play out screen by screen, with characters able to pick up scattered armor pieces that alter their stats and appearance. The pacing is slow, the collision detection is unforgiving, and the difficulty can spike unexpectedly. It feels like wrestling in molasses, but there's a strange, janky appeal to its roughness.