Guest Review: Altered Beast - SEGA Mega Drive (1990)

Altered Beast (1990)
Platform: Mega Drive
Published: 1990 (EU)


GUEST REVIEW by GARY HENEGHAN

I first experienced Altered Beast back in 2002, a time of gaming limbo for me. Disillusioned with my PS2 and needing a break from Pro Evolution Soccer, I picked up a Mega Drive and a few cheap carts. One of the carts was Altered Beast. At the time, I considered the game's...well, naffness to be charming and really took to it.

When I purchased SEGA Genesis and Mega Drive Classics from Steam last year, Altered Beast was the first game I loaded up, to see if it was as...entertaining as I remembered.

The Game
Originally released in arcades in the Summer of 1988, Altered Beast was ported to practically every video game system under the sun. The Mega Drive port is the best remembered of all the ports as it was the 'pack in game' that came with the console...before a certain blue hedgehog became a global phenomenon.

The plot is fairly simple. Zeus' daughter Athena has been kidnapped by the evil Neff and taken to the Underworld. Zeus chooses to resurrect a fallen soldier to rescue his daughter and defeat Neff. This begs the question – why would Zeus need to resurrect someone to save his daughter? Surely, he could have solved the problem himself?
At least Zeus has given our resurrected hero some new powers – if he collects orbs, he will power up. One orb will bulk our hero up, two orbs will make our hero look like he's been on the 'roids and three orbs will transform him into a superpowered beast. The screen showing the transformation into a beast is one of the highlights of the game; an over the top cutaway showing the hero becoming a monster, complete with digitized scream.

Probably my favourite bit of the game.

These transformations sum up Altered Beast's graphics nicely. The game has an 80's horror feel about it, full of dark, murky caverns and mutated, supernatural enemies. While the graphics are nothing special by Mega Drive standards, they certainly do a good job of emulating the arcade game. Altered Beast's sound, on the other hand, stands out a lot more. Everyone knows about the infamous speech, but little thought is given to the music. This is a shame as the music is very underrated in my opinion; moody and epic, it really contributes to the atmosphere of the game.

The Experience
Playing Altered Beast in 2015 was no different to playing it in 2002...or 1990 I'd imagine. Even by retro standards, the game feels very basic in structure. The five short levels offer little variety – it''s simply a case of 'Punch enemy, keep walking right”. There aren't any clever set pieces either – enemies generally just wander on to the screen waiting to be destroyed. Even the bosses can be beaten fairly handily.

The boss of level three looks tough, 

but can be beaten by standing next to him and hammering B.

As a simple side scrolling brawler though, Altered Beast does the job. Sure, the controls feel heavy and I can't deny that the game does rely on cheap hits to challenge the player (looking at you, Chicken Stingers). Yet I found the game compelling – the challenge of quickly getting the orbs and transforming into an altered beast is addictive and the game doesn't wear out it's welcome. I can see why SEGA used Altered Beast as a pack in game – it was a port of a well known arcade game, with impressive graphics for the time, and by bundling it with the console, no one would feel cheated by the lack of depth offered.

Damn Chicken Stinger...

as long as you don't get hit once, you'll be fine....

otherwise, you're getting spammed to death.

Overall
I see Altered Beast as a 'guilty pleasure game'. I can't recommend it based on quality – it's horribly dated, sluggish and very shallow. However, I can recommend Altered Beast for it's accessibility. In an age where games often have 30+ hours of gameplay, extensive multi player options and additional content, Altered Beast is a fantastic alternative to modern gaming, a mindless twenty minute arcade blast. Sometimes you want the finest steak for dinner. Sometimes you want fast food. Altered Beast is the gaming equivalent of a sausage roll – cheap, simple but pretty satisfying.

Score – 6/10