This game was introduced to me on the plug and play console which had Kid Chameleon, Flicky, Golden axe with sonic and mean bean machine. This was a pretty good game for its time and was a pack in title for the original Sega Genesis. It was considered a great port of the classic arcade game but since I never owned a physical release and only played it on compilation genesis games for Xbox… I have to resort to emulation. This is Altered Beast for the Sega Genesis (On emulation).

Story: 7 

Awakened by the God of gods, Zues, you “rise from your grave” to battle hoards of monsters to challenge the god of the underworld, Neff. It’s up to you to conquer Neff and save Athena, the daughter of Zeus, and bring her back to her father. Are you up to the challenge? 

The game is more so a beat ‘‘em up style game with some Greek mythology. The usual “save the damsel in distress” trope but back then it was pretty original with the use of gods. 

It’s a 7 out of 10

Depth and addictive : 6

Bundling them together since they’re both mostly going to be the same talk. The game doesn’t offer any depth at all other than the story and cutscenes. With that you can change the settings with how much health you want and difficulty but other than that it’s just like the arcade. The game is like a beat ‘em up with some sort of platform jumping as you go forward to the stage and collect three orbs from grey wolves when defeated (usually by a kick or punch) and it grants you with more power until you transform into an animal of that stage. Whether it be a werewolf, tiger or a bear, even a dragon, it gives a bit of diversity as that’s the only way to have a battle with the stage boss. The level designs are varied and gives a good sense of transition with the outdoor graves to caves and even a mausoleum looking stage. The game has its cheap thrills but it’s not much to play regularly. Probably once a year or so. 

Both Depth and Addiction is a 6 out of 10. 

Graphics : 7 

The graphics for the Genesis is pretty good in its time. It was one of the games bundled into the system (until sonic in 1991-92) and such. The graphics look good compared to its arcade counterpart and all. Big of pixelation but can’t really complain much to an early Sega genesis game. The stages look well done for a Sega title and it gives off a mysterious vibe from mentioned earlier, the graveyards to caves, mausoleum and more. It serves its justice to be a good port of the arcade in terms of graphics. The graphics department is a simple 7 out of 10

Sound : 7 

The sound has that special Sega Genesis feel to it. Staticky, compressed, high pitched you name it. The soundtrack is pretty good and is suitable for the game and setting, and honestly the best part of the sound. The fact it has voice samples like Zeus “Rise from the grave” to the yells was kinda surprising for an early sega genesis title. The game over though, I felt like it was so off with the setting of the game but honestly I like it. 

A 7 out of 10 for the sound. It shines in some areas while it suffers in others. 

Difficulty : 7

Game isn’t difficult really, it’s more so about trial and error and finding out how to maneuver through the stages without falling to holes or dying from enemies. At first it can be a bit of a hassle but with the power ups and transformation it can be rather easy to tackle the levels, except the bear. The bear sucked in my opinion. Not much here also either. 

A 7 out of 10

This is rather a quick review since there wasn’t much to talk about a 16 bit game. The game back then was probably really popular in the arcades, hence the bundles with the genesis. The port seems like a fairly good recreation of the arcade version and I can see how it sold well as it was different from other games at the time. Sega came out with the system to tackle the Nintendo and eventually Super Nintendo but I doubt this game made a huge impact to shift the tides, well probably not until sonic I guess. The game is well made for a port, but being an old title it has a more once in a while playtime and most likely go through one play through a year. 

My rating :  7.5/10

Review rating : 6.7/10

Nice review as always. I remember playing this game when I was a lot younger. It seems a lot of early to mid 1990's games were beat em up style. A lot of them were on the Sega Geneses. There was streets of Rage, Stone Protectors, Battle Toads (mostly on Nintendo), and other beat em ups. From what I remember I was horrible at Altered Beasts. I did not make it that far in the game. For me the main issue was enemy placement. The enemies just loved to gang up on you in this game from what I remember. Needless to say I did not play this one that much due to being horrible at it.