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