Game Highlight #3

Altered Beast

Known widely to be a "must have" in any retro gamers collection, Altered Beast is a great example of a 2D side scrolling beat 'em up which is easily on par with other great classics such as "Streets of Rage", "Street Fighter", and "Mortal Kombat".

So why is this the Game Of The Month for July?

Well, quite simply it's fun, adventurous, colourful and above all "monstrously" playable over and over again (you see what I did there)?

Let's start again with the plot...

You are a centurion resurrected in Ancient Greece by the god "Zeus".

"Zeus" makes it your mission to rescue his daughter "Athena", but by doing so you must battle through hordes of zombies, creatures, animals and monsters.

(Not really your average "day in the office" is it)?

The colour/detail in the graphics...

From the screenshot to the left, you can see how colourful Altered Beast is.

The Megadrive does a fantastic job of rendering the graphics in Altered Beast and keeps up with the characters movements with very little issue as well.

Combine this with the animations of the enemies such as "The Eyeball Boss" (Shown to the right) who somehow manages to dispatch eyeballs out to damage you (freaky as hell!) the game at times, can really make the viewer squirm...again because of the attention to detail from the artists.

The power ups...

I tried so hard to save this until the end...but it's no good, I need to get this out of my system!

The power ups on this game are awesome! you go from average man, to strong, to Schwarzenegger, to Wolf, Dragon, Bear etc. not only that, but with each "creature / animal" you become features different moves...The following is a screenshot of when you "evolve" from Human to Creature (In this case - The Wolf)

Just as an example, the Wolf can "Jump Kick" which knocks all enemies off their feet, resulting in an instant death.

Alongside this, it can also throw fireballs (comes in handy with the boss at the end of the level believe me)!

The wolf is just 1 of 5 animals/creatures that you can turn into as your progress through the game, the exact order is:

• Level 1 - Wolf
• Level 2 - Dragon
• Level 3 - Bear
• Level 4 - Tiger
• Level 5 - Gold Wolf (Slightly more powerful than the original wolf in Level 1)

Once again, each of these characters have their own strengths, weaknesses and powers.

From flaming fireballs to surrounding yourself with electricity, to even bad breath!

Altered Beast promises fun, yet action packed side scrolling fighting fun.



The history / continued legacy...

OK so it may not be directly related to the gameplay, but one of the things that makes Altered Beast so good is it's history and continuing legacy.

Originally released for the arcade (back in 1988), it was an instant success.

Why? well mainly because of the points spoken about above...the graphics, colour, detail, story, bosses, powerups etc. they're all memorable and back in the days when Arcade gaming was still a popular pastime (sigh), this was one the newest and biggest hit games around.

Unfortunately, the ports of Altered Beast such as for the Megadrive, Master System, Amiga, Commodore etc. weren't exactly popular in the eyes of critics.

Some said the games were poorly ported, other stated that although the Megadrive was more powerful that it just didn't belong on a home console, others rated it as one of the worst ports around!

However, these do only seem to be "critic" reviews (albeit, there will be a few "non critics" that don't think the ports were good) but my advice? get it and try it for whatever system you have, nowadays you can pick Altered Beast up for between £2 and £15 (roughly $3 - $25) it's definitely worth a go to see for yourself.

And now for the continuing legacy it leaves...

Since it's initial 1988 arcade release, I've just written that it was ported to a numerous amount of consoles...but it didn't stop there.

In 2002, for the Gameboy Advance, THQ released Altered Beast - Guardian of the realms.

This was a sequel to Altered Beast and featured more creatures and animals to turn into, more powerups and destructible environments...though I haven't played it myself it seems to be rated between 3-5 stars.

Aside this was a remake of the original Altered Beast released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2.

By remake, I mean completely different to the original. You are a human that has had your DNA purposely altered so you can change into any creature (at any time - depending if you have the correct amount of serum) to fight your way through enemies.

Once again it's not something I've played and unsure whether I will or not...anyone played this? any opinions?

All in all, Altered Beast (as a recap) is a 2D side scrolling beat 'em up which promises endless fun and playability with just the right amount of difficulty, powerups and levels.

To reiterate, it IS a classic, and it IS a must have!

Do yourself a favour...grab it and own yourself a piece of gaming history!