Before Sonic, there was Altered Beast as the Genesis/Mega Drive's pack-in title. Did it do its job? Ehhh...

On one hand, it does a pretty great job at immediately showcasing the system's power, with this looking almost identical to the arcade machine, something very impressive at the time. Sound's not quite as nice, as always, but it's still far better than what the NES could do, and as a whole it does definitely give you the "arcade at home" experience. As a game tho? This is as forgettable as they come.

This game's legacy is just "that one weird buff furry game that came with the Genesis before Sonic did" and for good reason. It's a bland, repetitive beat 'em up with stiff controls that you can beat in an hour as long as you're willing to put up with how boring and simplistic it is. It's not horrible, it's an okay freebie and an alright technical showcase, but it's instantly clear why this was replaced by Sonic just two years later.