Altered Beast

"A good port, failed only by the fact the arcade game had no depth or difficulty"

Back in 1987, Sega released Altered Beast into the arcades to a fairly good response. As was the fashion at the time, all successful arcade games were released into the homes. Altered Beast made its way onto the Sega Master System, and onto Sega's new machine, the Sega Megadrive. Altered Beast made its way to the Megadrive (or Genesis to you North America mob), and was the first game to be packaged together with the machine. It was a good demonstration of the 'Arcade Graphics and Stereo Sound' that the Megadrive boasted in it's advertising campaign. Still a bit off from 'Arcade Perfect', it was good enough to cement its spot in the history of the Megadrive.

When I purchased (or had my mum purchase) my Megadrive, there was a choice between the packaged games, being late 1991. Of course, the Megadrive had only made it's way to Australia in the Winter of 1991 (our winter, your summer). I had a choice, World Cup Italia '90 or Altered Beast. Having a well read brother, and liking Altered Beast on the Master System, we decided to go with Altered Beast. Of course, as any Genesis/Megadrive fan knows, it is the superior of the two games, as World Cup Italia '90 smells something chronic, almost like that of a cat's litterbox.

Altered Beast really showed off the superiority of the Megadrive to its 8-bit brother, the Master System. Altered Beast on the SMS was fairly good, especially when compared to that awful mess that was on the NES (I've seen it posted as one of the worst games on the system). Its problems lie in the fact it was missing a level, and that the game speed took a severe hit to fit the complex graphics in. The graphics in the Megadrive version look quite polished. They are not as refined as the arcade version, but remember the slight limitations that consoles had, especially when compared to the arcade games of the time (the System 16 board was still more powerful than the Megadrive). The aforementioned slow speeds of the Master System version have vanished. The hero himself (I think he has a name, but it's been a long time) is fairly well drawn, and Sega have spared no expense on his animation. While it (the animation) is still a little sparse, remember the era we are referring to. Enemies are quite evil-looking, but they lack any real sort of animation, and are poorly coloured. Colour is a problem. Everything looks either washed out, too bright, or brown. The beasts are pretty beasty, with a lot of attention to detail in the way they have been drawn. But once again, poor colouring makes them look bad. Background are intricately detailed. If only the colouring on these could have made it through to the sprites.

The soundtrack is involving of a few looping songs. Just the title theme, the normal music, and the beast music. The beast music is quite fast, and can get the blood pumping. It's also pretty catchy, and any self proclaimed video game guru should recognise it from the first beat. Sound effects are pitiful. The attempts at digitised voice are horribly muffled (the famous 'Wise fwom yo gwave'). Other sound is pretty limited, and uninspiring at that.

The storyline is based in Ancient Greece. You were a champion of the gods, and you have been raised by Zeus to rescue his daughter, Athena, from the clutches of the god of the Underworld, Neff. Of course, it's not entirely accurate, according to Greek Mythology. The story is good enough to support the style of game used in Altered Beast, that being a mindless Beat 'em Up.

Gameplay is exactly that, a mindless Beat 'em Up. Roam through 5 levels, in various parts of Greece (none of which are recognisable), beating the stuffing out of the undead scum which you come across. You will run into the god of the Underworld, Neff, three times each level. These act as a guide to how far you are in the level. To face Neff, you must collect the 3 icons from the Blue Tigers to power yourself up. With each collection, you will become stronger. On the collection of the 3rd icon, you will become a beast. There are 4 different beasts (and one variation), the Wolf (Golden Wolf), the Dragon, the Bear, and the Tiger. Of course, if you fail to collect 3 icons before the final time you see Neff, you will have to fight him the way you are. There isn't really much to the game, just scroll from left to right, pummeling the creatures, and avoid being hit yourself. Beat the boss, and continue to the next level. Bosses are quite hard to begin with, but every boss has a pattern, thanks to the arcade boss style of old.

Control is quite good. The D-Pad moves your character around the screen. The A button punches. The B button kicks. The C button jumps. When you are transformed into a beast, A is a projectile attack, B is a screen wipe attack, and C jumps.

Unfortunately for Altered Beast, the game has very little staying power. The two player mode only makes things easier. With 5 relatively easy levels, you should be suprised if you don't charge through it on your first go. The final level is the only one slightly challenging, seeing you have to use that stupid Golden Wolf to fight a damn hard boss, but once he's beaten, that's it. No more game. There is a cheat code around to let you change which beasts are used on which level, adding a little more novelty, but not saving it from the fate all arcade conversions were destined for.

Overall, its a good port of the arcade game, but its problem was that the arcade game didn't really have enough to keep one interested for more than about 2 hours, which is the nature of an arcade game. Not enough depth to keep you coming back for long. It is a part of Megadrive history, and not too bad. Still better than those awful 3D Beat 'em Ups.

Graphics: 6.8

The sprites are big, and well drawn, but the colour used in them washes away any chance of a mark any better than mediocre. Backgrounds are well drawn, and well coloured. Its a shame everything couldn't have been consistent.

Sound: 6.4

The music is fairly catchy, but there's not nearly enough of it. Constant re-use of the one stage music just becomes totally irritating. Sound effects are just horrible. The digitised voices should just have been done away with.

Story: 5.0

Just sneaking into mediocrity. Beat 'em up stories never really have any sort of depth. Setting the game in Ancient Greece would have been fine if they had gotten their facts straight.

Gameplay: 6.6

Standardised beat 'em up fare. The two player mode is a nice touch. Collect the icons, turn into the beast, beat the boss, go onto the next level. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Control: 8.0

Control is nice and simple. The game is very responsive.

Lastability: 4.0

You'll be lucky to get more than a days play out of it. 5 pretty easy levels, with only mildly challenging bosses.

Quality of the Port: 8.5

The quality of the port was great. It includes the extra level left out of the Master System version. Graphics and Sound are pretty much on par. It's a shame there just wasn't much game there to begin with.

Pro's

- High quality port of the Arcade game
- Control is good
- Stays faithful to the beat 'em up style of its time

Con's

- Colouring of sprites totally degrades the graphics
- Repetitive sound
- Inaccurate story
- No depth
- No difficulty

Does it belong in my collection? Depends

If you want a piece of Megadrive history, pick it up if you can find it. Otherwise avoid. It would be very cheap (they offered me $2 for a trade in a month after I bought it, and were selling copies of it for $40 (all amounts in $AU)).

Overall: 4.4 (adjusted to 4 for GameFAQs and 4.5 for FBGames)

The port is great, but as I said earlier, there just wasn't enough game to begin with. No sequels or anything ever planned. I guess it just died as a result of its mediocrity. At least it kicks the pants off the NES version, which was a totaly discredit to the name of Altered Beast.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/99, Updated 07/03/01