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)

Great conversion of the arcade hit, underestimated due to overexposure.

The Good
Altered Beast was one of the first couple of games for the Mega Drive / Genesis. Its a side scrolling platformer and its quite original and fun. The graphics were very detailed and captivating with a mythology theme and a variety of large and detailed sprites. The game features paralax scrolling in several levels which was very new in console games at the time.

The game is overlooked due to its overexposure as the original Sega pack-in game of 1989. Makoto Uchida's masterpiece was done justice with this cartridge.

The Bad
Altered Beast was one of the first Genesis titles and as such it was only a few megabits. This put constraints on the number of frames of animation.

As the original pack-in title there was also a need by Sega to eliminate the gore of the arcade game which is present on the Master System and PC Engine version (released five years later). In the original arcade game when you struck the zombies in the first level they exploded into internal organs and limbs. This gore is featured in both the Master System and PC Engine version.

Naturally, Sega could not include explicit gore in a game that would have the exposure of a pack-in title and instead of exploding into guts and limbs the Zombies simply break apart into flames.

Another graphical feature that was changed from the arcade was the sprites for the two-headed wolves. In the arcade they were brown and the special white ones were the ones you had to kill to get power ups. In the Genesis version the two headed wolves are pink and the power-up wolves are blue. They have also inexplicably shrunk. This causes the two-headed wolves, who are ubiquitious throughout the game, to be confused with pigs by most players.

Many of the colors of the sprites were inexplicably altered but usually this did not detract from the game.

As an arcade game it was long enough, but as a home console translation it was far too short. It needed to be at least twice as long and a little more development of the story would have been good also.

The Bottom Line
Altered Beast is a fun game that is an excellent translation of the Arcade version. Its still superior the PC Engine version graphically and in terms of control, though the PC Engine version retains some of the sprites and animations of the Arcade version that the Genesis lacks.

Genesis · by Majestic Lizard (670) · 2006

A particularly good conversion of a particularly bad arcade game.

The Good
I must say that the PC version of Altered Beast is by far the most fun of all the versions of Altered Beast I ever played, the arcade version included. The original arcade game was terrible. Aside from great graphics, it had absolutely none of the elements that make a good game: terrible controls (playing this game with a joystick is next to terrible) and stupid, non-varying gameplay.

However, I must give credit where credit is due: the PC version is that much more fun than the arcade version. Despite the hardware inferiourity, the CGA graphics (not to mention VGA if you had it) were really terrific and the game was fast and fun. Not having to pay for the game has its merits, and the frustration of wasting money on dumb, unforgiving gameplay is gone here, which makes the PC version of Altered Beast what it is: a simple, fun-to-play platform game.

The Bad
Admittedly the ridiculous plot from the arcade remains; however, the horrendous gameplay does not.

The Bottom Line
Just goes to show that superiour hardware does not necessarily translate to a better game. For another example, see Laser Squad.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2000

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

[ 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. Genesis, Commodore 64, NES, SEGA Master System 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. Windows, Linux, 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.