Intro

“Rise from your grave!” is one of the most recognizable lines in gaming history. Altered Beast is responsible for giving rise to this and remains a favorite of gamers the world over. I never really played this one in the arcades, where it gained most of its renown, instead I was introduced to it on a Sega Genesis and was instantly hooked. It was years later before I got a Sega Genesis and by then Altered Beast was no longer bundled with the system (I got a Core System, no game with it, though my parents did get me Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with it). I personally spent a long time chasing after this game and it was indeed a very sweet victory when I was able to take it home and play on what was now my own copy of the game. While it will still on my shelf for fairly lengthy times this game is never forgotten in my mind. When the mood strikes me I load it into my Genesis, grab a friend if possible and play for as long as I can.

Story

Zeus calls to you, his fallen champion, to rise and rescue his daughter Athena from the clutches of Neff. You give chase, battle the Demonic and Undead Hordes at Neff’s command.

Gameplay

This game offered something new for the time and remains the original for this concept: Multiple transformations. Each stage has the player transform into a different creature which they then use to battle through the rest of the stage and take on the Boss. At this point you’re one-shotting enemies who previously took a few punches or kicks to take down. Each form also has its own special attack: The Werewolf charges straight-forward, in an arrow-head of energy. The Dragon surrounds itself in a field of electricity. The Bear does a short hop in a spinning ball of death (think Screw Attack). The Tiger form shoots fireballs are the enemies. The Golden Werewolf is the Ulitmate form and by far the most powerful, all in all though, close to the Werewolf in terms of function and play.

Being a side-scroller, the design of the game is very simple, beat up whatever gets in your way, especially the Blue Dogs, to reach Neff. The Blue Dogs release Power Orbs which let your character grow and increase in power, ultimately transforming as mentioned above. It is also worth mentioning that using the hidden options screen makes the game more manageable as you start with only 3 health, which can drop very rapidly. The best advice I can give honestly is start swinging, and keep swinging until the Boss. There, watch for their pattern, note vulnerabilities and attack. This game takes very little brain-power honestly, though it is still very good to just sit down and play. Sometimes there is nothing better than fictional resurrection and hordes of demons and undead to unwind after work whatever you do.

Multiplayer

Two-player Co-op. Frankly, this is the best way to play the game if you can help it in any fashion. As an Old School Beat-em’Up it’s almost mandate. Having a second player at times makes the game much easier and more manageable in general than it would be just on your own. The game won’t let you take on the end-level boss until Both of you are transformed into animal form. The game doesn’t double up most enemies, but there will be two Blue Dogs usually at the same time, allowing for One person to transform very quickly or for both to change at the usual pace. It’s an interesting little twist in how the game functions there. It can be frustrating sometimes when dealing with someone who’s new to the game, so keep this in mind when you’re explaining the basics of the game to them. Remember, ALWAYS, sharing is caring in this game and it keeps Both of you alive longer. The enemies aren’t going to go any easier on the person who’s still just human while their buddy is a Werewolf tearing through their ranks.

Controls

Left, Right for moving, Down to duck (and aim kicks upward). By holding Up while jumping, it increases the distance covered. A works as Punch, B, Kick and C Jump. In Were-forms, B becomes the special attack as noted above with the Werewolf’s arrow head attack, the Dragon’s electric field and the Tiger’s Fireball

Graphics

16-bit side-scroller. While nothing to really write home about, even back in the day, it’s easy to see that some attention was paid to detail. Plus, having the final transformation sequence a quick little cut-scene was a fine graphical choice, giving solid emphasis to the best feature of the game. This wasn’t the game’s big point anyways, while it did certainly help, it wasn’t, thankfully, what the main draw was.

Sound Effects & Music

“Rise from your grave”, “Power up!” and “Welcome to your Doom” Three great classic lines of Video game history all in one game. This was very new technology at the time and it certainly was a welcome addition. The music is decent, actually seeing a good bit of remixing, but it will wear on you after a while of play. Thankfully it is very rare that the soundtrack really repeats itself and at least while playing the music just fits in and doesn’t really bug me in the least. The Sound Effects are well done, not being very over-bearing thankfully.

Obscurity

While initially popular, the game has faded a bit into obscurity. Even with it available through the Wii’s Virtual Console hasn’t seemed to do much for people recognizing the game itself.

Summary/Author’s Take

This is one game I will try to get a lot of friends to play if they never got the chance to play in their youth. It’s dated but it’s an iconic game of the 16-bit era. Always there will be traces of this game within the world at large of video games, even if only as a memory. Still, it exists and it innovated at least some things about the gaming world. It drew the Gamers to its sweet song with its famous quotes. Heck I even encounter them running Tabletop D&D games! I got some interesting surprises around that, but it was agreed that day that this game was awesome. As the quotes were well-used at the time, I couldn’t really complain at all. Now though, I would very much like to resume playing this game before I need to return to other work.