Technical Information

Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Release Date: 1988

Altered Beast is a platform beat’em up game.
The story takes place in Ancient Greece. You are resurrected by Zeus (Rise from your grave!) and, under his orders, you must save his daughter Athena, who was kidnapped by Neff.

Final Thoughts – Analyzing the Game as a Whole

Graphics and UI

I have mixed feelings about the art.
I love the design concepts, but the main character has some anatomical mistakes that make him look a little grotesque.
It’s impossible not to feel uncomfortable when looking at the level 2 transformation, where his head is very small compared to the body. Another example is the bear beast. His sprites look totally unnatural, giving the impression that he’s an action figure from the 80s.

I noticed some Easter eggs, and I LOVED IT! There is a grave plate with the name Alex (surely an Alex Kidd reference!), an enemy from Golden Axe, and a corpse imitating the famous painting The Scream.

The bosses are very creative and bizarre at the same time. They give the game a creepy and hellish vibe.

Soundtrack and Sound Effects

The music from the first stage is a pure classic!
And of course, I cannot forget the famous “Rise from your grave!” and “Welcome to your doom!” voice acting.

After you transform into a beast, a specific song starts playing. The same happens when you fight the bosses.
Everything in this game has a simple structure, but it works well. Each track brings a specific emotion and makes the game unique and memorable (or is it just me being nostalgic? Hmm…).

Gameplay

You can jump, kick, and punch enemies. At first sight the controls feel stiff, but after a few minutes you can adapt to the (not so good) mobility of the main character.

The stages work in “waves”, and at the end of each wave you can fight the boss… Unless you didn’t catch the spheres that transform you.
If you collect all three orbs in the first wave, you get more points after defeating the boss.

In each stage, you can transform into a different beast. Each beast has different abilities that slightly change the way you defeat enemies.

In general, the game is not very hard and it is quite short.
It’s easy to memorize enemy patterns, and each run you play, you’ll notice you get better! 🙂
The first time I beat this game I used many credits, easily more than 30. But the second time, there were exactly 21!

One thing I didn’t like is the fact that after you use a continue, your score doesn’t reset. It’s basically a pay-to-win system from the 80s! hahahahaha

The last stage is fucking hard. It was the most difficult part of the game for me.

Replayability and Game Retention

I grew up playing the Sega Genesis version of Altered Beast.
The Arcade version was something new (and positive!), in my opinion.

Even though the game is short, it’s fun. Once you know all the stages and bosses, you can beat it in less than 30 minutes.