Reviews from

in the past


When you think of the Sega Genesis, you may mostly think of Sonic the Hedgehog as the face of the system, but for a while, that wasn't the case. From 1988 to 1991, there were a slew of other games that were released on the system to represent the Genesis lineup, such as Golden Axe, Space Harrier II, and The Revenge of Shinobi. Sure, all of these games were good on their own (at least, I assume with most of them), but they wouldn't reach the same level of popularity that Sonic would bring to the system years later. One example of these games would be with the original pack-in game that came with the Sega Genesis, Altered Beast.

So, as the first thing people originally got with their Genesis back in the day, did it provide a good first impression of what the system could do? Well, yes... but not much else. The game itself is ok, and it has a pretty cool concept, with cool environments, creature designs, and ideas, but aside from that, everything else kind of holds it back from being a true classic in my eyes.

The story is very simple, while having, again, those elements that make it cool, the graphics are pretty good, the music isn't really all that special, the control is a little awkward, given your size and the rate at which you and the screen moves, but you can get used to it, and the gameplay does sound cool in concept, but upon execution, you can find better elsewhere.

The game is a 2D side-scrolling beat-'em-up, where you move from left to right in short autoscrolling levels, defeating enemies and bosses while gaining powerups along the way. That is pretty much the extent of the game's content, but what keeps you playing is what these powerups do. After gathering four of the same powerup in levels, you will transform into a new creature form (or an Altered Beast, you could say), such as a wolf man, a dragon, a bear, and a tiger man, where you are much more powerful, and you have a new set of abilities to use on enemies.

Now, I will admit, the game can be fun at points, and the concepts it utilizes are pretty cool and unique for the time. It does feel really satisfying to gain your beast form and then start to tear through the enemies in the stage. Not to mention, the fact that they give you a new beast form for each level keeps things interesting and fun, with you wanting to see what comes next and what moves you can pull off later.

With all that being said, there are a good handful of problems that keep the game from being too good for me. The stages are really short (and I mean REALLY short), which makes the game really short, the way the stage moves is strange, and not something I could really get used to, especially with how enemies spawn in and attack you, you can take damage very easily, there are no continues when you get a game over, which makes sense considering how short it is, and how it was an arcade game, but it is still a letdown, and the bosses either range from being way too hard or way too easy, especially whenever you are in your beast form.

I feel like the main issue that holds this game back really is just a lack of a consistent difficulty flow. It fluctuates from being too easy and too hard constantly, with the enemies that spawn, where they spawn, how fast they move, and how quickly the bosses can be taken out at points. Sure, this isn't too much of a big deal, but it does put things into perspective once you reach the end of the game.

Overall, while it has a lot of cool concepts and designs that makes it certainly memorable, the game itself isn't really one that I would want to revisit anytime soon, and if the core gameplay was more fine tuned and a little longer, then I would probably be singing quite a different tune.

Game #136

Good pussy brings out the beast in a mf

Gave it a second try and came out a lot more positive. I think it's one of the few 16-bit games that got better with time; now that's super inexpensive and accessible, it's a lot easier to admire its b-movie energy and overly-charismatic charm.

Cannot imagine spending 60 bucks on this in 1989 tho, it's 10 goddamn minutes long and has almost no depth to its gameplay.


Game #68 of my challenge

Altered Beast is an entry in my list that I never heard of until I played it. It's a side-scroller Beat them up that have some nice Idea in it, but is a tough game to beat.

First of all, The plot is about the ruler of the underworld in Ancient Greece, Neff, kidnapping Athena. Zeus is pissed and resurrects you, a deceased Roman Centurions. Zeus chooses you as his champion and grants you power to get back Athena in the underworld. At least the story is kind of original and is just there to give you a purpose to beat the story. In-game, the story is not much there. I will at least give them the effort of implementing some ''audible'' dialog said by the main enemy (even though it's barely comprehensible).

The graphic is a nice change since it's not the pixelated games that I played a bunch recently. The sprites are clean, They really put an efforts in the visuals for this game. The enemies looks good, your character is clean and the background are well implemented. It's a nice change of pace. The music however, is really average. There is no remarkable tracks and the SFX are just OK.

The controls are kind of funky, You have a punch button, a kick button and a jump button. However, if you want to have an easier time to attack enemies arriving from the top, you need to press down and then use the kick button. Your character will put himself on his back and will kick straight up. It's really awkward to press down to attack enemies from above. The game feels slow when using the controls, but is understandable because of the visuals of the game.

The gameplay is a simple beat them up, with enemies spawning a little bit everywhere, but the twist is that is an auto-scroller. You need to move to the speed of the stage. Also during the level, you need to beat all 3 blue wolves and collect the orb before reaching Neff. Collecting an orb will buff your character and on the 3rd one, you will transform into a specific beast of this level. If you do not collect the 3rd one before reaching Neff, the level will loop and you will redo the whole level again. In one loop, you can only see 3 blue wolves. So if you miss one, it's too bad for you and you need to redo the loop. At least the levels are kind of short.

When transforming into a beast, you will gain special attacks with that transformation. There are 4 different beast that you can incarnate. This creates a really nice variety to the gameplay. Each level has a boss at the end and you will need to beat it with your transformation. Some of them are easy, but others are really hard to not get hit by anything. Once you beat all 5 levels, the game is over.

One thing that I hate about this game, is that you have no way of healing yourself or getting extra lives. Even when you complete a level, they do not heal you to the next one. So you pretty much need to play perfectly to be able to beat all 5 levels. If you lose all your lives, you need to start all over again, which can be really annoying.

Despite the difficulty of the game, the game had some really nice ideas and had some fun moment sometimes. This game doesn't stay his welcome since there's only 5 levels. You should try it if you search for an old, short and sweet game.

Quite a strangely iconic game for the time as it basically marked the start of the Sega Genesis' legacy despite being a port of an arcade game, yet it's very mechanically frustrating and mindless. The first two stages give some promise as they're pretty simple enough to play around with given the game's simple mechanics, and then it all nosedives once you reach the third stage. From this point onward, several frustrating aspects frequently start to show themselves like poorly conveyed mechanics and particular enemies and enemy swarms that you just can't properly handle with how the game works, and with the game's complete lack of invincibility frames and extra lives, it quickly turns a short and simple beat-em-up into a annoyingly prolonged game of trial and error. (Some other aspects I would like to mention are the power-up transformations essentially being a stun as you're still vulnerable after they end yet you can't do anything for a short bit after they do, and also that entire 4th boss in particular) It has some comical enjoyment to it like the crusty dialogue and animations, but it honestly doesn't hold as much merit as games like Decap Attack and Bonanza Bros. so it can only do so much until it's mechanical shortcomings overshadow it's charm.

Also, one thing that was conveyed extremely well was the title screen's button combinations like A + Start which lets you continue where you last got a game over and B + Start which is where the options menu (where you can choose your stage and make the game easier) is located. Would've liked to be wrong about the lack of continues or options before I beat it, GAME.

Não é ruim mas também não é bom/divertido. O jogo tem inimigos e chefes com uma dificuldade moderada mas o que torna o game difícil mesmo é a pouca quantidade de vidas e a falta de itens de cura. Os gráficos tem uma boa ambientação e também é legal o personagem se transformando nos animais. A jogabilidade é bem datada mas conseguiu me prender.

RAAAAAISE FROM YOUR GRAAVE!
Welcome to your doom!



this game's so fucking funny, everything from the way your guy stops dead in his tracks to stare into the camera as his muscles burst from his shirt to the stupid laugh at the end of every stage. it makes me remember why i like video games, even though i want to castrate the person who made the final two levels

Groundbreaking game that gave birth to the furry movement. I imagine every furry has to beat this game as an initiation ritual

Jokes aside, it’s a pretty solid game for the time

A pack-in title for the Mega Drive...and it is god awful. I cannot believe that Sega actually thought this was a good idea to put this game with the Mega Drive. Such a horrid abomination this was to play through and I cannot imagine people who got this with their consoles back then and had to play this with their console.

A product of its time for sure. Stiff controls and repetitive combat. A classic for sure, but does not stand the test of time.

Esse aqui quem zerou sem save state tem pra sempre meu respeito

I know this game played an important role in Sega's history, both in developing arcade games and in developing home console games. I also understand that this game has a fanbase, mostly among people who remember this game being a launch title and the original pack-in for the Sega Genesis. However, I am not part of that fanbase.

There's only like 15 minutes worth of content to experience in total with this game, which was pathetic even for 1989, but this game spares no expense in dragging its barren content out, with sluggish gameplay and artificial difficulty, the latter of which stems from your character being pitifully weak when not in beast form. And good luck trying to enjoy beast form, by the way. You'll mostly only have it for bosses, which can be defeated in mere seconds once you figure out their often-easily-exploitable weaknesses.

It also doesn't help that this game has horrid sound mixing. Quiet and blandly-composed music is drowned out by scratchy, compressed voiced samples, which makes this game an assault on both the mind and the ears.

Want to play a good Genesis launch game? Play Thunder Force II. You'll get more out of that one than you ever will this one. Altered Beast is a milestone title in Sega's history, but it's for good reason that this game had been pushed to the wayside in favor of better titles, such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage.

D

in the late 80s someone described masculinity to an alien in 20 seconds and asked them to make a masculine video game

i-frames were not discussed

Look, there's a lot about this game that "isn't" "good", but at some point style needs to be a consideration. Everything about this game is weird and memorable. It's just fucking gnarly, man.

I have a very fond memory of playing this game at a friend's house and sharing a very crispy thin crust pepperoni pizza topped with tobasco. I don't think we ever beat the second level, but it's hard not to reflect on that and appreciate how simple a time it was. A few years ago I put together a list of 250 retro games which I committed to completing, and Altered Beast was one of the first ones I added to it. When it finally came time to sit down and fire it up again, I made sure I wasn't without another thin crust and a bottle of tobasco, just to make the experience complete.

Well, the pizza was good. The game freakin sucks, man.

It's a very early Genesis title, and as I've written about before, games of this era share a certain cheapness to them. Audio is tinny because composers were still getting the hang of the Genesis' sound, controls feel wonky, and the graphics lack color depth and detail. But where games like Streets of Rage and Revenge of Shinobi found some success in bringing the feel of arcade games into the home, Altered Beast completely flounders.

The gameplay loop is as bare bones simple as it gets: Walk to the right (and only the right, you can't go back), punch bad guys, collect orb, and turn into a sort of... beast? It's like a man beast. A beast that has been altered, perhaps. Each level ends in a boss that will probably give you a frustrating amount of crap to deal with despite levels being so devoid of challenge that you don't even need a brain your body to play them. The reason my friend and I never got past the second level wasn't because the second level was hard, it's because the boss was an asshole.

Bosses, beasts, enemies, and even level graphics repeat so frequently that it feels like they had about two levels worth of content that they stretched out. I'm being a bit hyperbolic, sure, but it is nonetheless remarkable to me how lacking the game is even when considering the unique moment in time it released. The most it has going for it is a few fun garbled sound bites and an iconic transformation sequence, but god knows you've probably seen both enough times that you've absorbed everything you need of Altered Beast through osmosis.

'Rise from your grave'? Uh, heh, how about no?? I'd rather be dead than play this game again.

Everything about this game is horrible. Worst "beat em up" game I've played and made me want to go home after finishing something so pointless

I'm in bed ill with the big COVID and fancied something a bit low effort and low stakes to keep my mind off all the horrible coughing so I fired up Altered Beast for a run through and I was lightly entertained for around the fifteen minutes it took me to finish the thing, which is about as long as this quite barebones (but strangely, quite important) title can really offer.

A few people really rip into this but I don't really see why they hold such venom for something that I could finish during a particularly stressful trip to the toilet. It's basic to a fault but it doesn't outstay its welcome.

The most heterosexual game of all time

So for shits and giggles, I decided to check out the arcade original of Altered Beast, after seeing how exceedingly fine and average the Genesis port/pack-in was. And well, I can sorta understand the infamy to a degree now.

AB is something you're supposed to do a run or two to get a feel for the enemies and how they work, but in the Genesis port they're so pitifully easy even in your initial state that it doesn't really matter. Here though, you NEED to actually keep yourself on edge, since they can and will hitstun the shit out of you if you're not careful. I only had difficulty with Stage 4 there, while here Stage 3 and 5 were giving me a hard time with how often enemies can appear, as well as your initial state actually feeling super weak before you get powered up, taking about 3-4 hits instead of 1-2. Controls are also stiffer, making it harder to get to the white wolves in time as well as pull off jumps and punches quickly due to turning and jumping not being as consistent ehre.

Even with this newfound insight... I still think this game is easy and short enough to not really get mad or bitter over. Annoyed, sure, but its difficulty is seriously overblown. In ABG, only annoying boss was in Stage 4, while here? Every boss is a joke, easily downed with the B-button spam. It's even possible for the last boss to get Toad Maned by jumping and pressing that button, since the range is just enough to damage and go through their head. It also doesn't change how you don't get immediately hit until the enemy's sprite and animation is actually ready to deck you, just bumping into them neutrally is fine.

I dunno, is this just one of those cases where I actually had to experience it as it was originally presented? I can see maybe getting mad if I had to pop in several quarters instead of using FinalBurn Neo's insert coin button repeatedly, or having only this as my Genesis game for a bit instead of just emulating it whenever. Still, that's a huge maybe, cause it's like, The Game Ever Made at the end of it all.

Altered Beast can be defined by a single word, depressing. It's a barebones beat 'em-up game where you jump, punch, and kick your way to five colorless levels that ramp up in difficulty (sometimes) with drab music playing in the background. The transformations are kinda cool and OP and a few of the bosses can be taken down in seconds if done correctly.

The main issue I have with this game is the difficulty. It's an arcade game that was ported to the Genesis, I get that, but it can be all over the place depending on how you play. Your health bar can be drained quickly if you're not careful and this can lead to draining all of your lives in seconds.

Altered Beast might've been impressive at the time, but I don't consider this to be a Genesis classic.

The Mega Drive launch titles are very strange. They have this drab and sad sound to them, and it really carries over into how this game looks as well. It's a weirdly miserable game, but it's not shit or anything, just very mid. Out of the three launch titles, Space Harrier II is slightly better, but both triumph over Super Thunder Blade very considerably. Super Thunder Blade is a complete joke both in general and as an actual one between friends and I need to talk about it some time.

Basically no thoughts changed on this revisit, so I decided to check out the arcade version as well. It's still drab and tedious. Gootbye

If you like this game, you automatically qualify as a furry.


I don't know what to say beyond "This sucks"

(Played in SEGA MEGADRIVE CLASSICS, on Nintendo Switch)

Thought it was better when I was younger and tried this for the first time. Thought also at the time that it was too hard and man I still stand by it. The first couple of levels are quite manageable, but from a certain point on, especially during the boss fights, there are so many bs things. The beast transformations are awesome to use though.

Mostly a spectacle piece; to that extent, this was probably pretty cool in the day. Gameplay is mostly padding until you alter into a beast, at which point it becomes a straightforward boss fight. The shmup ones are all right, Neff's eye form is freaky. But it's mostly just walking around as a tiny-headed dude until the RNG is nice and spawns Cerberus so you can transform.