75%Arcade

A little stiff in controls, dated gameplay.

But probably one of the most origina beat 'em up ever made.

60%Arcade

Arcade Difficulty: 8 Credits

I guess people don't like this game? We had it in the local movie theater growing up, and I loved watching the attract scene but my parents would never give me money to play it. Now I know it's because most arcade games are pretty expensive. This one was surprisingly short. Each level is only a few minutes long and you are basically just trying to upgrade your human to the beast form by collecting three power-ups from those white, two-headed goat-things.

I loved the first two levels, mostly because the goats are pretty easy to get. The last two levels are pretty rough to get the goats, but that's to be expected for arcade games. You can also play in two player mode, which makes getting the power-ups a little easier and you can really rail on the bosses as a team. I don't know, with unlimited quarters, it's a decent experience. Not amazing, but it's also quite memorable.

75%Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

Short but fun

50%Emulated

I played the game knowing it was going to be bad... But I didn't expect it being so mechanically bad.

The hitboxes are for sure not 100% accurate, the enemies move themselves in a bizarre way, the bosses most of the time are unpredictable and feels weird not knowing if you're actually progressing on it.

But well, the skill set needed on this game is, predicting the enemy that comes rushing in your screen, dodging it, killing the grey dog, getting the 3 upgrades and spamming hit on the boss... that simply works, because some enemies are harder to kill than the boss.

Transforming must've been cool for the time, but the transformations don't even change the gameplay enough, you just hit from farther away.

A strong 5/10.

50%Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

Jogo interessante, com boas ideias, bem feio, mesmo pra sua época, faltou capricho nas sprites, mas é um jogo funcional q se tornou um clássico cult.

Nota: 5/10 (★★☆) - Jogável

50%PlayStation 3

Stupid and amusing classic.

70%Emulated

É um ótimo jogo Beat' in up, eu gostei do jeito que eles idealizaram a ideia do diferencial do jogo, é um jogo curto até demais, mas é bem divertido, tanto pra jogar sozinho como para jogar de dois

25%Sega Master System

The Master System version is a tough one to go back to. It was an okay port - at best - when it was initially released. With the regular availability of the Genesis and arcade versions, there's little but novelty to recommend it.

40%Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

Never have and never will get what's supposed to be interesting about that one.

65%Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

Been working to fill out my BINGO cards for the 2024 Polykill Challenge, and one of the squares is to beat Altered Beast without using any special settings or save states. Did a few practice runs, and then recorded my playthrough.

The game, end-to-end, is easily beatable within 10 minutes or so. But the practice and memorization leading up to that beat is a solid hour or two.

I know this game doesn't get particularly well-reviewed, but I think it's great. It's hard but never feels cheap. The patterns are consistent and entirely learnable. The 5 boss fights and associated Beast powers are all really cool and creative. And it's a short game.

Haven't played any of the other Altered Beast games, but I really feel like this one deserves the remake treatment, with a few additional levels added.

50%PlayStation Vita

It’s a classic that I never played.
In 2023 is really outdated but still fun to play.
Game is short enough to not become a slog.

80%Arcade

Title: Altered Beast
Platform: Arcade
Region release played: USA
Year of release: 1988
Developer: SEGA
Publisher: SEGA
Graphics: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Challenge: 3/5
Fun factor: 3/5
Quick Thoughts: Altered Beast is a 1988 side-scrolling arcade beat 'em up (with no Z-axis). The game's claim to fame was its strong graphics and audio (for 1988 mind you), and the ability for the human (zombie?) protagonists to morph (alter) into powerful beasts. This twist was enough to make the game a hit and be ported to 20 other platforms (seriously AB has to be one of the most ported games of all time). The plot is a very simple save the princess affair, as was incredibly common in the '80s. Altered Beast may seem quaint by today's standards, but in 1988 this was a technical tour de force worth rising from your grave for.

+Awesome graphics for its time (pretty good music too)
+Being able to alter into monsters was amazing for a kid gamer.
+Really cool boss battles.
+Gotta love punching those zombie heads off.
+Supports two player simultaneous gameplay.

-Only five short stages.
-No unique protagonist beast for the final stage.
-Stage designs are very simple.
-Repetitive game design to a fault.
-Replayability is minimal.

60%Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

Dang, I forgot how short Altered Beast was. Other than the mess that is the final boss (imho), it's actually quite a bit more beatable than I remember thinking back in the '90s.

Altered Beast's never been great. We all know it. Let's not pretend. But it was C O O L. The transformations were *so cool*, you wouldn't believe. It's worth playing at least once, but just don't expect to fall in love.

We used to rush to play this at my cousins' house. Never could get very far until replaying it on emulator back in the '00s, and now again in '22. A nice experience.

30%Arcade

Dragon mode is kinda fun I guess?

10%TurboGrafx-16

While I recognize that Altered Beast is by no means a masterpiece, both the arcade original and the Genesis/Mega Drive port that was a pack-in title for the Mega Drive/Genesis in many western markets have always been guilty pleasures to me. The basic concept of Altered Beast is simple 80s arcade game cheese at its finest: you are a musclebound fallen warrior who is resurrected by Zeus to rescue the Greek god's kidnapped daughter, Athena. Indeed the game's opening scene, where Zeus commands you to "Wise fwom yo gwave!" has become somewhat iconic among fans of retro games.

The gameplay of Altered Beast is equally simple: it is an auto-scrolling brawler where you walk to the right on a single plane, while encountering enemies that you can either punch, or kick. Certain enemies drop orbs that increase your power, and when you have collected three of these orbs your character morphs into a beast form, which differs in every stage. While this seems like a concept that is almost impossible to screw up, Altered Beast has been the recipient of some of the most abominable arcade-to-home system ports of all time.

This PC Engine port of Altered Beast may well be the worst of the bunch. As soon as the gameplay commences players will notice that their hit boxes are much larger than their enemies', and most enemy types are near-impossible to hit without getting hit yourself, which results in knockback (think Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden). In fact, the shoddy hit detection makes it, at many points, extremely difficult to hit enemies at all. This frequently results in the screen quickly becoming cluttered with enemies, with the player bouncing back and forth from knock back between the surrounding enemies, caught in a death spiral with no means of escape until they die. For many enemies, particularly humanoid ones, a ducking punch is often the best way to approach them. Unfortunately, this is a much less viable strategy for the bull-like enemies that carry the orbs that allow you to transform into beast form, and indeed Altered Beast on the PC Engine has the questionable honor of being the very first version of the game where I failed to collect at least three orbs per stage multiple times in a single playthrough. The absolute worst attack is the upwards kick, used by pressing duck plus the kick button. In other versions of the game, this attack is generally used to thwart enemies that attack from above, specifically the flying imps. Forget using it against them in this port, it is a completely useless attack, and I'm not even quite sure if it registers a hit at all, or if it is merely a sprite animation that the makers of this port forgot to assign an attack to in the game's code. A better recourse against the imps is a jumping kick, or at least it would be if the jumping in this game wasn't such a laborious process itself, with its inexplicably long delays.

Even at its best, Altered Beast never ranked among Sega's top tier of arcade or home console games. This PC Engine port, however, is an absolute insult against the original game. I have played some absolutely dire ports of the game through the years, including the awful Amiga and Sega Master System ports, but Altered Beast on the PC Engine is the worst I've encountered thus far. Nearly every aspect of the gameplay is broken, and the game is, quite frankly, nearly unplayable. The one positive is that the graphics look all right - not spectacular, but all right -, and the music sounds fairly okay running through the PC Engine sound chip. But undoubtedly the best thing about this broken mess of a port is that it was a Japanese exclusive, meaning kids who owned a Turbografx-16 were at least spared the heartbreak of receiving an extremely disappointing Christmas or birthday gift. Those poor kids in Japan, though.

40%Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

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.

100%Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

A true classic of the golden age of beat-em-ups.

60%Arcade

C+

40%PC

Jeez, I used to remember this game fondly. Not even nostalgia can salvage the horrendous quality of this classic arcade game. The fact that it's even a faithful port further highlights just how lacking the base game itself is. Highly recommend playing almost any other 2D Genesis action game as opposed to this.

70%Emulated

Altered Beast is a side scrolling beat em up with a 2D view, kind of like bad dudes or shinobi. You have risen from the grave to save the wizards daughter. Now beat up monsters, collect power ups to buff up your character until he turns into a beast, and then take out the boss! Its a fun co op game and its cool to see what beast you will transform into in each of the 5 levels. I suppose you could beat it on 1 credit but you will probably pump a lot into this machine to beat it. A fun 2 player game and good for a laugh.

30%Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

"WIIIIIISE FWROM YOUR GRAVE........"

While it is not a bad conversion of the Arcade game, it is still a poor/average at best game. I only have fond memories of this as it was the first game for my Mega Drive.

40%Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

TOO HARD.

30%PlayStation 3

Yikes does this not hold up

60%PlayStation 3

A good classic which should be played by everyone once in a lifetime

70%PC

extra notes: reached the last stage at various times and used save states to practice tough areas. This practice is included in the completion time, which ends when I managed the first full clear on the default difficulty.
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Altered Beast is a very short autoscrolling platformer. It's essentially just a memorisation game, as you learn how and when to react to various obstacles in order to reach the end. It is a very short game but this is to its benefit since actually finishing it may take a lot longer than a single playthrough depending on how quickly you figure out various strategies etc. Once you start nailing it though the swift pace of getting back to where you died helps keep things interesting and makes it feel satisfying rather than frustrating, and eventually you will crack the game open and execute it flawlessly to a well earned win.

Has some interesting mechanics that see you transforming into various creatures once you collect enough pickups, each one with its own unique ability that you leverage to your advantage against the boss of each stage. It looks decent, has some very memorable sound bites. It's not the perfect game but for what it is it is a decent little experience. Not something that's readily recommendable, you have to be in the right kind of mood to play something like this but it's still worth a shot if you are at all curious.

40%Xbox 360

Really meh beat-em-up, but some good sound bytes came from it. "Power Up!"

50%PlayStation 2

Not a fan, but better than the Mega Drive Version.

60%Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

Too short and simple to get a higher score than 6/10.

60%Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

It's hard to believe this was ever a popular quarter muncher at the arcades. At the time we were all blown away by the large, beautiful, animated sprites I suppose. The Genesis conversion was a launch title and it shows as it wasn't quite able to match its arcade counterpart in graphics. On the plus side it loses the arcade's stiff controls; the Geny version controls perfectly. All that being said the main problem here is that this is a straight forward port with no added material. The arcade original is just far too short. Only recommended to those seeking a dose of nostalgia.

30%Xbox 360

Wasn't good when i was a kid and isn't much better now!