Can I get ripped and turn into a frickin' monster just by kicking wolves in the head? POWER UP!

Look, the motions are a bit wonky and everything feels kind of slow in this game. The graphics are fine most of the time and you got it for free with your early-version Genesis, so tons of people have definitely played this (or the arcade version). The transformation cutscenes are great, the digitized voices are somehow both funny and pretty good. I remember it being pretty tough to beat, but I've never been much of an action game expert.

You're definitely going to have to use your best late-80's imagination to fill in the awesomeness of this game, but it does a fair job of entertaining and is definitely worth a shot.

WELCOME TO YOUR DOOM!

Review from thedonproject.com

This game used to always piss me off as a kid because I could never beat the first level. Since then, I have always been a devout Altered Beast hater despite never getting through the first level. Today however, I have finally finished Altered Beast and I can say with full confidence that this game is dog shit. I will give it some credit though since Altered Beast does do some cool things. The whole progression system where you slowly power up and turn into a beast is really cool. There's also this part where you turn into a dragon and there's this pseudo bullet hell boss fight. That was really good. Other than that, most of this game blows. It's stupidly hard, and sometimes the game pulls these bullshit tactics that just make the game feel like it's broken. At the end of the day, I don't think I hate Altered Beast as much as I used to, but I still would never consider this game a classic.

RISE FROM YOUR GRABE. its altered beast. theres not a whole lot to it, but I don't think that it's particularly bad, especially for its time. But then again, I'm sure even when it came out it was a C-tier game... I don't even think it's because of the actual gameplay loop itself, I think that a lot of enemy placements and level design just feel kinda... cheap? and that makes the game as a whole feel kinda unpolished. Since its a both a launch title and a bundled game for the system, it means it gets rereleased constantly, so if you really wanna try it, you sure can. But in this day and age, why play this when the same console can play alien soldier?

Un poco mas lento que su versión de Arcade pero igual de bueno. Era un regalo cuando un juego de estas características se podía jugar en casa. Un beat em up clásico con una característica muy interesante, te puedes convertir en diferentes criaturas con distintas habilidades en cada nivel, brindando una enorme variedad al juego, ya que cambia las mecánicas y, a veces, incluso el género, pudiendo ser hasta un shooter de naves cuando eres un dragón. Lo único que no me gusta (a mi, de forma personal) es que el juego sea tipo "carrera", es decir, el nivel te empuja a avanzar constantemente como un arcade de naves. Sin embargo es un juego interesante y divertido que pondrá a prueba tus reflejos. El sistema de guardado en consolas de últimas generaciones lo convierten en un juego asequible de completar.

Unbelievably, before Sonic the Hedgehog arrived on the scene, Altered Beast was SEGA's big, flagship game. Paraded to consumers as a (relatively) faithful adaption of the arcade version, Altered Beast showcased what the Mega Drive could do graphically and sonically, especially compared to the aging NES. It evidently worked but Altered Beast has aged like milk and isn't really worth revisiting.

The game is essentially a scrolling beat 'em up but it suffers from woefully stiff movement, a limited move-set and very little enemy variety. The game is frustratingly difficult because the character you control moves like ass and levels have no real design to speak of, they're just totally flat stretches that see an occasional enemy stroll into view to bash.

Admittedly Altered Beast does have some memetic value. I mean, you're playing as a buff bodybuilder who wanders around graveyards in tight little speedos, punching the heads off shambling zombies before transforming into a wolf or a dragon or whatever. There's something hilarious about the premise. It's a shame the game doesn't offer anything beyond a light chuckle.

Altered Beast foi a capa do Mega Drive antes do Sonic entrar em cena, e por si só, deu muito sucesso ao console, que usava ele para demonstrar o propósito do Mega Drive, que era trazer os jogos de Arcade pra casa de forma quase perfeita. Podemos dar o mérito a ele por isso.
Quanto ao jogo em si... eh, não é ruim.

Você é um centurião ressuscitado na Grécia Antiga por Zeus, após ele falar as palavras mágicas "WISE FOM YO GWAVE". Ele só não te fala qual é a missão, só do nada zumbis e demônios começam a te atacar e você te que se defender, na falta de um botão pra gritar que nem uma garotinha. Maioria das crianças não liam o manual, então ficava por isso mesmo.
O que acontece é que Hades... ou Neff, como ele é chamado aqui, sequestrou a filha de Zeus, Atena, e você deve ir salvá-la, porque Hércules tá ocupado cortando cabeças da Hidra.

Para a missão você ganha o poder de se transformar ao matar os 3 Cérberus azuis de 3 cabeças de cada fase. Se você perder um, terá que repetir o looping (até máximo 3 vezes, acho, mas nunca vi ninguém falhar tanto). Em cada uma das 5 fases você ganha uma transformação nova. Lobo, dragão, urso, tigre, e lobo com hepatite. Note que apenas o lobo, que é a capa do jogo, tem a animação de transformação completa, os outros você só pisca no bicho mesmo...
As transformações dão poderes novos que são muito úteis para matar o chefão no fim de cada fase, que é sempre o Neff se transformando em algo. Ele começa a pegar pesado a partir da terceira fase, é onde muitos jogadores caíam na época. Após derrotado, ele rouba suas esferas de poder e vocês descem para o próximo nível, até chegar no submundo.

Após cada fase, é mostrado uma cena das coisas terríveis que Neff está fazendo à Atena até você salvá-la, e é revelado que ele cometeu o imperdoável ato de sequestrá-la para... transformar ela numa pomba...? Po mano, se era um passarin que você queria, por que só não foi no pet shop?

A tela do jogo anda automaticamente de forma bem lenta para a direita, inimigos vêm e vão e você precisa dar um jeito em todos, enquanto presta atenção se vai passar algum Cérberus azul pra tacar a bicuda. Você tem um soco e um chute, além do pulo, e você usa combinações com o direcional para pular mais alto (segura cima) ou chutar pra cima (segura baixo). É bem travado, mas você pega o ritmo.
No mais, é apenas isso que o jogo tem a oferecer, como dito, não é ruim, ele fez um bom trabalho em chamar atenção para que as pessoas comprassem o Mega Drive. Mas real ele só tava esquentando o banco pro Sonic.

[Sega Mega Drive Classics PS4]

I liked some of the pixel art - mostly the horror-esque enemy designs and the portraits of the beasts you turn into. The animation was a bit janky and so was the gameplay to be honest. Movement was very sluggish and the game wasn’t fun enough for me to want to ‘git gud’, so I used the rewind feature to see it through to the end. Then I watched an arcade long play on YouTube and it was soooo much faster! Another SEGA classic that’s borderline unplayable. I gave Shinobi two stars so this has got to be one star because nearly everything here is worse.

It's as straightforward and basic as a beat 'em up can get, and while I would've no doubt been pissed if I ever paid full price for it back then (as it was also sold after its time as a freebie with the Genesis), it's not a bad time killer once you figure out where the wolves spawn and have 15 minutes to spare. It's also one of few games I've beaten completely drunk off my ass in the morning (night shifters rejoice).

I suppose it also helps that I have a bit of nostalgia for the game, even if I'm not a boomer. When I was 7 years old in 2003, someone in the family got me one of those Jakks Pacific plug and plays with this game on it. I was legitimately terrified of the first boss and his semi-realistic human face...so much so that I didn't bother revisiting the game until years later in high school.