Altered Beast

Altered Beast

Arcade cabinet - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Sega R&D1 Publisher Sega, Ocean Software Published 1988-06-14 Platforms Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Genesis, Mega-Tech System, MSX, Master System, NES, TurboGrafx-16, TurboGrafx-CD, ZX Spectrum Genres Action, Beat 'em up, Platformer Themes Fantasy, Mythology, Superhero Series Altered Beast Multiplayer Simultaneous co-op Distribution Commercial

Altered Beast is an action platform beat 'em up developed and published by Sega for the arcade on 1988-06-04. It was initially designed to run on the System 16 arcade board and was later ported to about a dozen platforms.

The game is set in ancient Greece. Zeus's daughter Athena has been kidnapped by an evil magician named Neff. Zeus resurrects you, a dead centurion, to fight your way through Neff's henchmen and rescue Athena. In each stage, if you defeat two-headed white wolves, they will leave behind a power orb which will make you stronger. If you collect a third orb, you will transform into a powerful beast — like a werewolf or dragon — and gain special attacks.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	No.

I saw first saw this game in the arcade room of Lakeland Arena in the late 1980s, and, not being a great reader, I initially thought the other kids were calling the game "Alter Beast." Although I never played it at the time, I loved to watch other people play the game, and I remember seeing kids get as far as stage 3. I was really impressed by the graphics and the idea of turning into a werewolf seemed so cool. Years later, I found a System 16 emulator online and played the game all the way through. The process took tons of credits, and the last stage was so hard I wasn't even able to get enough orbs to transform before having to fight Neff. This kind of disenfranchised me to the game, and other ports had such difficult controls, I have never had much desire to get good enough to beat it.

Review

5	3	7	7	4

Best Version: Arcade

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• For the time, the game was very impressive. It used top of the line hardware both in audio and video.
• The entire game is very creative. Being able to morph into fireball-throwing werewolves, electricity slinging dragons, and the rest is fantastic. Enemies like the skull-holding skeletons, head leeches, and rattlesnake dragons are all really interesting and beautifully rendered, and the bosses are especially impressive. Aggar, the head-hurling dead body boss of stage 1, is one of my favorite bosses in video game history.
• The graphic effect where body parts of slain enemies expand toward the screen is really cool.
• The game's music composed by Toru Nakabayashi and sound effects are good, and digital speech was still impressive in 1988.
• The arcade game has a wonderful attract demo.
• The ending is pretty cool.
• The NES port, though horrible looking, adds two new stages to the game where you change into a shark and a phoenix.

Bad

• The game punishes mistakes brutally, especially in later levels. It seems like Sega designed the game, not so much to be fun, but to drain quarters.
• The game is really short. When playing at an expert level, the entire game takes less than 15 minutes to finish.
• The player's body grows with power orbs, but his head doesn't, which looks ridiculous.
• The attacks in the later transformations are kind of silly. A bubblegum blowing bear? A bouncing ball throwing tiger? WTF?
• In the last stage, you're short-changed by transforming into a werewolf again rather than a new beast, but the game tries to play it off as a new transformation by calling it a "gold werewolf." Nice try!
• The morphing animation is only drawn for the wolf. All other morphs just flash between the two rapidly.
• The foreground bodies in the final stage look great, but the artist ruined the seriousness by adding the The Thinker and The Scream into the mix.
• All the speech sound sounds a bit... off, the "rise from your grave," intro especially.
• A rescue the princess story line, how original.
• None of the boxes have very good art work.

Ugly

• The game's controls are terrible. The player's attacks are sluggish, and jumping is especially bad. I always feel like I'm struggling with my player more than the monsters.

Media

Arcade Art

• 

  Cabinet - USA.
  
  Decent look, but the bezel and control panel are pretty bland. I love the Altered Beast text.

• 

  Marquee - USA
  
  I like the idea, but why use a reptile eye when the primary transformation is a werewolf? Also, the dude's eye isn't very manly.

• 

  Bezel - USA.
  
  I think it's meant to depict skin turning into scales.

• 

  Side art - USA
  
  Again, good idea, bad execution. The transformations just look like men wearing masks.

• 

  Instructions - Japan.
  
  Badass artwork.

Box Art

• 

  Genesis (USA / Europe)
  
  The wolf head looks pretty bad, but I like the ochre palette. The lettering comes from the arcade, but it has been made to look more ragged, which I love.

• 

  Mega Drive (Japan)
  
  Uses the complete art on the back with more of the creepy enemies, and adds a nice blue to compliment the ochre. Also great lettering.

• 

  A poster of the art.

• 

  Master System
  
  I like the transformation idea, but not the art style.

• 

  Famicom (Japan)
  
  Really awful art. Looks like a still from a cheap 80s cartoon.

• 

  PC Engine, PC Engine CD
  
  Shows more of the full art.

• 

  Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum
  
  Just awful.

• 

  Tiger Electronics
  
  Uses the Genesis art.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - Arcade - USA.

• 

  Manual - Computers - Europe.

• 

  Manual - Computers - USA.

• 

  Manual - Genesis - USA.

• 

  Manual - Master System - USA.

• 

  Manual - Famicom - Japan.

• 

  Manual - Steam - World.

• 

  Master System hints.

• 

  Advertisement - Arcade.

• 

  Advertisement - Spain - Activision.

• 

  Advertisement - France - Activision.

Maps

• 

  Arcade, stage 1.

• 

  Genesis, stage 1.

• 

  Master System.

• 

  MS-DOS.

• 

  ZX Spectrum.

• 

  ZX Spectrum, from Sinclair User.

Graphic Sheets

• Arcade
• Genesis

Collectibles

• 

  Aggar.

• 

  Statues of the transformed beasts.

Fan Art

• 

  Fan art by Daniel Vendrell Oduber.

• 

  Fan art by Santi Ikari.

• 

  Comic by Lindha Dotrem.

• 

  Fan art by JordiLupo and BrotherOstavia.

• 

  Fan art by Peetcooper.

Videos

Commercial, Japanese Mega Drive.

Longplay, arcade.

Longplay, Amiga.

Longplay, Amstrad CPC.

Longplay, Atari ST.

Longplay, Genesis.

Longplay, Master System.

Longplay, MS-DOS.

Longplay, TurboGrafx-16.

Longplay, ZX Spectrum.

Play Online

Amiga, Arcade, CD-ROM2, Commodore 64, Famicom, Genesis, Master System, ZX Spectrum

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	The only woman is a damsel in distress and reward.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There is no dialogue.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	All of the characters are white.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Altered Beast
Japanese	獣王記	Juuouki	Beast King's Chronicle

• MAME code: altbeast, mt_beast

Links