"An action classic"

Altered Beast is a classic. It is criticized for the reasons many other classic arcade games are. Story and graphics.

Gameplay
Altered Beast is about fighting zombies and all sorts of other beasts from the underworld. The game takes you from level to level and moves with the enemies you defeat. Three spirit balls must be obtained for you to change into the corresponding beast of that level. You must be beast to fight the boss at the end of a level. In human form you have punching and kicking in your arsenal. In beast form your arsenal is now packed with that beasts special moves.
10/10

Story
In Altered Beast you play a risen herculean to rescue the daughter of a zeus type father from an evil underworlder named Neff. 10/10

Controls
The controls are not easy to master. Not because they are unresponsive but because of the enemy moving type play. You have to make use of both punching and kicking and jumping to not get caught near the end as the level moves.
7/10

Graphics
We will start with the introduction screen. You see an eye that looks normal at first and then you see the color of it change to something beast-like! This was done very well.
The changing of the color and all. Title screen shows the name of the game in red letters with a nice blue background. The letters stylish. They are in a sort of wispy font to show wildness of a beast.
The in game graphics are providing a nice touch to the feel the game is trying to give you. The backgrounds are done nicely to fit the time era. Colors are bright, or a mixture of both depending on the level. Characters are done with a sort of artsy feel to them. The kind of feel that early side scrollers had. The main character is done well. He is made to look muscular even in small form. His color is a tan skin color. He wears a simple cloth almost looking torn because he has been dead for awhile. The enemies do not have any weird cutesy feel to them at all. They look like something straight out of Greek Mythology. The undead characters look mean and rotting. The underworld demons have a look about them in their design that shows they are all evil. One last thing. There are also extra clips in between levels to show what is happening the daughter. These are cool but at times hard to make out because they are done with one color. 9/10

Playtime
New users will want to play just for the sheer violence of being able to punch zombies and may be hooked on the beast factor. Old users will just play for something to do. 7/10

Final Reccomdation
Play this before you make any quick conclusions. I think its a classic and should not recieve such heavy bashing.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/23/04