When i was a kid i went to my friends birthday party and some dumbass i never met before was playing this on my friends wii and i thought it looked cool so i asked

"What is that game"
Then he was like "i dunno"
Then i said "Well youre playing the game what the cr*p is it"
He responds "i dont know"
I beg "Do you know the name of the game atleast"
He grimaces and says "no"
...."Can i p-
"no"

So i leave the room and come back and the game is paused so i sit down and continue playing and according to my mom because at this point in the story for whatever reason shes sitting down near the couch that im playing the game on. The kid from before comes back and says "thats my game give it back" and im like "What" "dude give me my game back youre mean" For some reason according to my mom i just stare at him for 1 minute straight emotionless and he just leaves i have no recollection of this

Anyway, the game fucking sucks but it takes an hour to beat so if you want to digest some slop bone apple tit

Considering the bad reputation Altered Beast has, I don't mean to defend it from the hate it's got. Why make a personality out of dissing old games? This is a 1988 title, a port of an arcade game, I don't want to gatekeep you saying "you had to be there" to understand, but the full potential of playing basically an arcade game on your home console wasn't lost on anybody at the time. I wasn't there specifically, but I remember playing Tekken 3 on the PS1 as a kid and feeling the same sense of wonder about the future of videogames. Generation after generation we all have had the same expectations about the future.

Altered Beast is by no means a masterpiece but it's funny. It's hard and controls aren't intuitive (did you know you can kick up by crouching and kicking?), but bit by bit I reached the end of the game and saved the day. If you don't consider every restart, since every time you lose all lives you go back to the beginning, the game doesn't last long, but it gave me something: everytime the player would power up twice and he'd become this big mountain of a man, when hit he'd be laying down on the grass in a funny pose (see the sprite in the bottom). Like the Peter Griffin pose, that caught me off guard. If someone asked me if it's something worth to take out of a game, I'd say it is, I had a good amount of fun and once the gameplay loop hits, it becomes addicting in a way.

What bummed me were the bosses: the game's difficulty comes from enemy placement during the side scrolling sections, but then the bosses have each a pattern easy to avoid and to exploit. Add the single continue, after which it's game over, you can see why this game is reviled. Me? I find that falling animation funny and the transformations were goofy enough to keep me invested, but if it's worth something I cheered at the golden werewolf, "Just like Super Sonic!" I thought.

Conclusion: I would say Golden Axe is better, but why wouldn't it be? I can see where Team Shinobi and the porting team learned their lessons right here. I think it's worth checking out because it's funny and there shouldn't be any bias when playing games, since there are standards and I understand, but we should all be able to enjoy things nonetheless. I mean come on it's 15 minutes long at least give it a try!

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.

i like the idea of this game a lot with it's progression system of collecting power ups that let you turn into a super powered beast form to fight the stage boss. i also think its cool that each level with the exception of the last has unique transformations with unique attacks. i also think theres a bit of charm with the way the game looks and all the bit crushed voice clips and stuff. thats pretty much where the praise ends though. the game is just kinda janky as hell. theres all sorts of shit the happens that i find so dumb like getting hit during transformations, the way you can just jump and spam kick over and over again and it kinda works sometimes, the way you can get hit and not lose health sometimes but get hit by the same thing and lose health, just weird inconsistent stuff like that. also maybe im just stupid and didnt look around enough but i couldnt find anything like health pickups or extra lives, and the game doesnt have continues at all. even though the game is short its still kinda difficult and in a bad way that inflates the amount of time it takes to beat. i got to the final boss but had practically no health left and no lives, and i dont think its possible to not take damage to the final boss so it feels like you have to get there without taking any or minimal damage and lose no lives which i just cant do, so i gave up. overall, cool game concept, reallll shit execution

im completely satisfied
my other life i will not miss
an altered beast until i die
and i will not give up on this
NEVER!!!

Cleared on March 3rd, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 47/160)

Say hello to one of the six launch titles for the Sega Genesis when it was launched in the US. It was the game that came bundled with every Sega Genesis before Sonic took over that position a year later to great success. Altered Beast is an arcade port of a beat-em up where you play as a resurrected human to rescue Zeus daughter from the clutches of Hades, who really wants to welcome you to your doom.

It's pretty much run of the mill as far as side scroller beat-em ups go which isn't surprising since it is launched in 1988, but I liked the idea of transforming into a mighty beast. Upon collecting 3 orbs from the blue hellhounds, you transform into a beast and soon after take on the boss. There's five bosses in the game which are nothing special. The first three bosses are easy enough once you figure out what to do. The fourth boss takes a good amount of hits and avoiding their attack combinations can be difficult under bad circumstances, but then there's the final boss.

Why won't that fucking rhinoceroes die?!

This is a weird one because I definitely respect it on a base level and think the idea is cool however I just think it’s relatively unimpressive and kinda boring to play. Still I’m happy this helped put the genesis on the map but later games would greatly improve and show off how great the genesis could truly be. Besides there’s better genesis games from the late 80s like ghouls n ghost and revenge of Shinobi. To me this feels like a below average nes beat ‘em up game with some slightly more detailed graphics thanks to it being 16 bit.

If you want something similar yet way better play the splatterhouse games.

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.