Altered Beast

Whole I appreciate this game for launching one of the greatest consoles of all time, I have to say it's very primitive even for an 80s game due to it clearly being made as a spectacle rather than a fun experience.

My main issue I that for a game with such a simple control scheme, it's frustratingly difficult due to how slow your character is. I get that it wose fwom its gwave so naturally it was going to be disorientated in universe, however our hero walks at a sluggish pace as it defeats enemies’ way faster than it to eventually transform into a creature that's equally as slow as its regular form. It's a game that was outclassed by the likes of streets of rage and golden axe not long after its initial release as those had more fun beat em up style gameplay than this. I will say the presentation is good (save for the hilarious sound mixing ruining otherwise passable choice samples) the graphics are really good for an early 16 but game and the sprites are heavily detailed which likely explains how slowly our hero moves.

I guess this game isn't offensive and can even be worthwhile overcoming it's brutal difficulty, I just don't like it very much outside of the achievement it was for Sega.

In Altered Beast, Zeus resurrects a warrior and gives him the task of rescuing his daughter from the evil Neff. Not sure why Zeus couldn't do it himself, but this warrior seems special because he can turn into a beast.

You start each level in human form. Some enemies will drop and orb, collect 3 and transform into a beast. Each level has a different beast: werewolf, dragon, bear, tiger and a golden wolf. The beasts have different attacks, even though the attacks aren't really associated with that particular beast e.g. a bear has a spin jump attack, wolf has a fireball.

You move from left to right, mainly punching and kicking enemies as you make your way to the end of the level where you will fight a boss.

The graphics are okay, the sprites seemed a overly large meaning the screen was a bit cluttered.

The gameplay is quite clunky, sometimes the hit detection seemed a bit off, or the amount of space you have to dodge is insanely minimal. I had a hard time understanding how to attack the bosses without taking damage myself. Sometimes this was a problem with normal enemies too.

I played this in the Sega Genesis Collection on Steam which runs inside an emulator. You could rewind as much as you like and I was rewinding constantly. It seemed extremely difficult to avoid enemy attacks, and some I was convinced were actually impossible to dodge.

There's only 5 levels, and by using the Rewinds and Save states in an emulator, you can easily be done within 20 minutes.

It's clunky, it's unfair, it's short. It's just not very good.

It's weird how a game as iconic as this aged badly and seems mediocre in retrospect, I kind of pity it. Still 1988 was an early time for beat-em-ups and the amount of moves this has can be counted on one hand, but it did make up for it for being a marvelous tech demo: Both for the graphical inovations and what arcade games and the Sega Mega Drive had in the future, and the unique power-ups it carried that signaled a new era for fighting games.

Altered Beast flimsily uses details of Greco-Roman mythology to tell the story of a centurion brought from the dead by Zeus(bringing with him the infamous 'Wise fwom your gwave' line) in order to save his daughter, Athena, from an Uncle Fester-looking villain. The centurion gets buff as you get power-ups from beating specific enemies, but with three power-ups you become a titular altered beast, turning into a werewolf, a flying dragon, a bear, all depending on the level. With it you gain a set of new, advantegous moves, being able to shoot projectiles or dash across the screens, and generally being a powerhouse able to mow down enemies on all fronts. It also gives you the right to encounter the boss, which will put your newfound skills to the test.

Altered Beast is a fair difficulty and is more fun with two players, but the limited set of controls and the enemies that use repeated cheap strategies make it overstay, even if capped at a short five levels. It doesn't carry that much with it afterwards, other than being plainly memorable, because it's really weird when a game like this brings a mess of Greek mythology and lycanthropy.

Altered Beast came as a freebie when I purchased the Sega Mega Drive. I had never played the arcade version, but it had to be better than this rubbish. Such an obvious candidate as a giveaway because honestly, who would want to shell out money for a sub standard pile of crap? But the worst possible candidate as a giveaway if what your are trying to do is impress people with your new console. The graphics were rubbish, the sound capture woeful, and the gameplay was little better than boring.

I only gave Altered Beast the odd perfunctory play, and it never got any better. I honestly would have got more pleasure out of staring at the wall for ten minutes.