Altered Beast: Guardian of the Realms

"Incredible improvement over it's predecessor."

I picked this game up because I remembered the old Altered Beast for Genesis as being somewhat playable, albeit minimally enjoyable. I expected no better from a sequel, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a sequel with all the good points of it's predecessor and A LOT more to offer.

Gameplay:9/10

Incredible. At first glance it seems no more advanced than it's predecessor, but after you get into it... it just blows you away. The attacks have been redone to include an upper, mid, and lower blow, all of which you will have to make use of at some time or another in the game.

The animal forms are the primary reason I gave this section a 9. Some of the animal forms are anti-climactic... turning into a big lummox that can barely hurt anything that isn't smack dab in front of it is somewhat of a buzz kill. Other animal forms just make no sense, for instance you might have a plethora of ground based attacks in a level that's almost entirely filled with aerial enemies. Some animal forms are very, very cool though, and nearly make up for the levels with not so cool or functional animal forms.

The power orb from the original game for going from Little Guy-Big Guy-Bigger Guy-Animal is still present, but so is a whole new line of single effect orbs that are more numerous. They do everything from make you invincible for a few seconds, to healing you, to simply nuking every single thing on the screen. They don't do much, but they're a nice addition nonetheless.

Story:7/10

Pretty much the same as the original one for the Genesis. Zeus raises you from the dead to kick serious Aegean butt in a variety of settings. The only reason this didn't get a 2 is because the cut scenes aren't that horrible. At least they are present throughout the game to remind you that there IS a reason you're smacking that funny looking scorpion rat all over the dessert.

Graphics:8/10

Not the best the GBA can do, but still very good. Despite some strange designs, all of the animal forms and monsters are done extremely well. I was especially surprised at the fact that very few monster designs were ''recycled'' IE taken from earlier stages, made stronger, and palette shifted. Almost all of the levels have entirely unique enemy designs.

The backdrops are very well done, and help immensely to breathe life into each level.

Music:7/10

It won't drive you insane, but it's not incredibly catchy or even good either. Some tracks do get a little repetitive after a while, namely the animal form theme and the boss battle theme.

Sound:9/10

The classic ''Rise from your grave.'', ''Power up!'', and ''Welcome to your doom!'' are all present and accounted for. The monster and animal form sounds are done very well. The only problem is that occasionally you hit VERY irritating sounding monsters. Basically it all works, and there is minimal annoyance in most cases.

Play Time:8/10

It's not an epic, but it is pretty big. Each level takes roughly 5-7 minutes to complete, so an expert gamer could
breeze through the game in about 2-3 hours. However, the average gamer will have to spend a lot of time backtracking through easier levels hoarding power ups to survive the later levels.

Replayability:10/10

This was the best part in my opinion. On top of going through each level again to get the ''talisman'' power ups, the gameplay itself can become mesmerizing to the point where you want to play certain levels over and over and over...

Buy?

Yes. Yes indeed. This game is an excellent addition to any GBA library.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/03, Updated 07/25/03