Game:

Altered Beast (1988)

Duration: 15:25

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15

Gameplay Performed by: TrevorDFox and MajestyFox

Altered Beast is a 1988 beat 'em up arcade game developed and manufactured by Sega. The game is set in Ancient Greece, and follows a centurion who is resurrected by Zeus to rescue his daughter Athena. In order to save his daughter, Zeus transforms into beasts with the use of power-ups. After its initial arcade release, it was ported to several home video game consoles and home computers, including the Mega Drive/Genesis, for which it was a pack-in
game.

Altered Beast was ported to several platforms after its original release in 1988. It was released for Master System, PC Engine (in HuCard and CD-ROM² formats), Family Computer, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, MSX, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Amiga and MS-DOS. The Mega Drive/Genesis version was the original pack-in game for that system in North America, Europe, and Brazil, before being replaced by Sonic the Hedgehog. A hand-held version of the game, made by Tiger Electronics was released in 1988.

Certain differences are seen between the several versions of the game. Some of them, like the Master System version, were only single-player, and had only four levels. Others provided different beasts to mutate into, such as a humanoid lion, or a shark form seen in the Famicom version.

The Mega Drive version is included in the compilations Sega Smash Pack, Sega Genesis Collection and Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, with the latter two also including the arcade version as an unlockable game. The Wii's Virtual Console service offers emulated versions of both the arcade and the Mega Drive port, while the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network have a re-worked arcade version with HD support, online leaderboards and network play. Sega released an official iOS port of the Mega Drive version in late 2010, The 2010 IOS Conversion of Altered Beast was taken down in 2015. In 2017, Altered Beast was rereleased on iOS and Android it is part of the Sega Forever Collection.

The game has also seen a 3D port for the Nintendo 3DS as a digital download on the Nintendo eShop. It retains the original game and local multiplayer, and also features a new mode with random transformations. It is based on the Mega Drive/Genesis port, not the arcade version.

In its initial arcade release, Altered Beast was a well-received game. Its conversion to the Mega Drive/Genesis was considered inferior to the arcade in terms of sprite quality. However, the Genesis version was more advanced than the arcade version in one regard: its utilization of parallax scrolling. Mega placed the game at #10 in their list of the 10 Worst Mega Drive Games of All Time. Its re-release for the Wii's Virtual Console was given a lukewarm reception by GameSpot and IGN, describing the game as merely decent with some nostalgic value. The Xbox Live Arcade re-release was even described by IGN as "relic of the arcade heyday that just doesn't hold up today".

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