Altered Beast

aka: 3D Altered Beast, Altered Beast Classic, Jūōki
Moby ID: 2019
Arcade Specs
Buy on Commodore 64
$36.00 used, $329.99 new on eBay
Buy on Genesis
$20.50 used on eBay
Buy on Windows
$0.99 new on Steam
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Description official descriptions

You are a hero raised from the dead by the god Zeus to rescue his daughter Athena. With scenery inspired by Ancient Greece, you have to fight hordes of undead and demons, with a boss at the end of each level until you meet the god Neff, who holds the girl captive.

The Altered Beast title refers to your shapeshifting abilities. In this platformer, you can collect spirit balls by defeating two-headed wolves, allowing you to mutate into different beasts such as a werewolf, a dragon, a tiger, a bear and others depending on the version. Each form, tied to a level, comes with special abilities such as flight and powerful attacks, easily superseding the basic set of punches and kicks in your human form.

The game can be played in single player mode, or in same-screen multiplayer co-op mode.

Spellings

  • 兽王记 - Chinese spelling (simplified)
  • 獣王記 - Japanese spelling

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Credits (Arcade version)

11 People

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 60% (based on 58 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.1 out of 5 (based on 221 ratings with 10 reviews)

Cult Hit, But Not For me.

The Good
Some of the boss designs. Transformations are cool.

The Bad
General gameplay. Getting animation stunned by enemy attacks.

The Bottom Line
A slog to play. It has not aged well for me.

Arcade · by Sagebirt · 2024

Welcome to your doom

The Good
In Altered Beast, you play a human, who is resurrected by Zeus to rescue his kidnapped daughter Athena. To do this, you need to go through five stages, defeating zombies, both air- and ground-based, with your punches and kicks. On your travels, you can obtain power-ups that are left behind by pumas. Get three of these power-ups, and you transform into a wild beast that has strength needed to defeat the boss at the end of each stage.

The beast that you turn to depends on what stage you're on. For instance, the first stage has you turning into a werewolf. Subsequent stages include a were-dragon, were-bear, and were-tiger. Out of all these, I enjoy playing as were-dragon, since you are not confined to the ground the way the other beasts are. But although most of the beasts can jump high in the air, this isn't the same.

Out of all the versions of Altered Beast that I have played so far, the Genesis version of the game looks and feels like the coin-op version. Similar sounds are played between the two. My favorite sound would be when your character says “Power Up”. It makes him sound like Thor. The graphics come just as close. The environments that are portrayed in the last three levels are well done. The controls act like they should.

The Bad
Unfortunately, the music doesn't even come as close to that of the coin-op version. The music in the Genesis version sounds as if the person who composed it only used one finger. The coin-op version has much better music, which blends in with the next piece very well. A thing missing is the Continue option, which lets you continue the game after you lose all your lives.

The Bottom Line
The Genesis version of Altered Beast has graphics that come close to the coin-op version as possible. The Genesis version is the best of the other versions that I have played so far. The only complaint about the game is the music, which sounds crap when it is compared to the coin-op version. If you have a Genesis, or a Genesis emulator, then Altered Beast is worth a look.

Genesis · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2005

Sloooow down

The Good
Sega had a great collection of great coin-op arcade games, just waiting to be ported over to the Sega Master System.

Altered Beast is certainly one of the great, classic Sega arcade games. The idea of bringing that "arcade experience" into your living room, was one of the reasons that people bought a Sega system to begin with.

While porting arcade games over to the home console, worked well for Sega in terms of the 16-bit Sega Genesis, some of their initial efforts with the 8-bit Master System were a bit of a disaster.

Sadly, the Master System port of Altered Beast is one of these 8-bit disasters.

The Bad
Granted, the Master System could not match the original arcade graphics or music.

To be fair, neither could the 16-bit Sega Genesis and it was probably not until the 32-bit era of gaming, that it really became possible to perfectly port popular arcade games onto a home console system.

Yet, while Altered Beast for the Sega Genesis showed off what the 16-bit hardware was capable of doing, even if it was not a perfect port of the arcade, the Sega Master System port failed to demonstrate the 8-bit hardware, especially in relationship to their main competitor; Nintendo.

Simply put, when you played Altered Beast for the first time on the Sega Genesis, you did feel like you were being welcomed into the "Next Level" (which was one of Sega's more creative advertising slogans).

In contrast, when you when played the Master System port of the game, the hardware advances were not as obvious enough to impact the outcome of the "Sega vs. Nintendo" video game war.

The Sega Master system version of Altered Beast also suffered from obvious and chronic slowdown. I am not sure if this was a case of bad design or simply the hardware limitations of the system.

Regardless of what it was, Altered Beast did not help sell the Master System, as port for the Genesis really helped sell the system as a viable alternative to Nintendo.

The Bottom Line
Altered Beast is a great Sega arcade game, which did not translate well onto Sega's 8-bit home console system.

SEGA Master System · by ETJB (428) · 2014

[ View all 10 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Steam release (2010) is Mega Drive/Genesis version Andrew Fisher (697) Nov 28, 2022
Back story, Japanese vs. rest of world Andrew Fisher (697) Nov 16, 2022
Short review(arcade, MD/Gen, SMS) Andrew Fisher (697) Oct 6, 2022

Trivia

Compilation

A version of Altered Beast is included in Sega's Smash Pack compilation CD.

Genesis pack-in game

This game was the first pack-in game to come with the Genesis when it first came out in 1989.

Megadriver

The Brazilian Heavy metal band Megadriver, specialized in SEGA MegaDrive music, did a cover of the first level theme, complete with one of the band members saying "Rise from your grave".

References

The ride-able lizard-birds from Golden Axe make a cameo appearance in the second stage. Bizarrian, a hybrid between an amphibian and a parrot, is also present in Golden Axe.

Version differences

The NES version adds 3 new stages and 2 unique transformations: a shark, and a bird. On the other hand, the SMS version removes the tiger level. The Zodiac release is an emulation of the Genesis version, but for one player only.

Awards

  • Power Play
    • Issue 01/1990 - Biggest Failure of 1989

Information also contributed by Mad_Griffith, Matthew Melbourne, Robbb and Zovni

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  • MobyGames ID: 2019
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Luiz Pacheco.

Android added by mars_rulez. Nintendo 3DS added by GTramp. NES, SEGA Master System, Genesis, Commodore 64 added by PCGamer77. PlayStation 3 added by Lain Crowley. Nintendo Switch added by Rik Hideto. Wii added by Guy Chapman. iPad, Zodiac added by Sciere. TurboGrafx CD added by Zovni. Linux, Windows, Macintosh added by Foxhack. ZX Spectrum added by Martin Smith. Atari ST added by ZZip. TurboGrafx-16 added by Terok Nor. Arcade added by The cranky hermit. iPhone added by Scaryfun. Xbox 360 added by Ben K. MSX added by koffiepad. Amstrad CPC added by Katakis | カタキス. Amiga added by Syed GJ.

Additional contributors: Rogee, Unicorn Lynx, Sciere, lugnut, Игги Друге, LepricahnsGold, MegamanX64, Patrick Bregger, Starbuck the Third, GTramp, Kennyannydenny, Harmony♡, heather sturmer.

Game added July 21, 2000. Last modified March 4, 2024.