Altered Beast

Originally Released for the Arcade in 1988, this game is from the creator of Golden Axe, Makoto Uchida. The game was seen as popular due to the fact the player could take on the form of "Were Animals". In Japan it was called, (獣王記 Jūōki, which means exactly "Beast King's Chronicle") A year later it was ported to various Consoles. Among them were the NES, Sega Mega Drive, Commodore 64, and PC Engine CD just to name a few.

Storyline and Gameplay

In Ancient Rome, the evil Demon God, Neff, has kidnapped Zeus' Daughter, Athena. Zeus revives a centurion from the dead to rescue his daughter. This is where the first stage starts, with Zeus saying the famous "Rise from your grave!" line. (which is sometimes misinterpreted humorously as "Wise fwom your gwave!" by some fans due to new hardware around at the time.)The centurian must kill the Wolf-like Demons that flash multiple colors. (in the Arcade version anyways. The Genesis/Mega Drive version has blue ones instead.) Killing them unleashes a spirit ball that the player must grab in order to transform. The first two increase muscle mass slightly while the third spirit ball will tranform the centurion into a beast depending in what stage the player is in. Once the player has changed into a beast he can then confront Neff who is will appear in breif intermission during the course of each stage creating a barrier of lightening to protect himself. if the player has collected all three spirit balls then he will say "Welcome to your doom!" and create a smoke cloud which then disappears revealing a monster that also depends upon stage as well. If the player has not collected three spirit balls Neff runs away and the player will face this situation repeatedly until he/she collects three spirit balls. After each boss fight Neff's head appears from a hole in the ground and he steals all three of the player's Spirit balls causing the player to revert back to his/her normal state. The player the proceeds to jump down the hole continuing to fallow Neff.

Here is a rundown of each stage. There are five stages in all:

Stage 1- This is a graveyard of sorts. The centurion, was revived from here by Zeus. Upon collecting three spirit balls, the player will transform into a Werewolf. The Werewolf has the ability to fire energy balls from its hands and do an energy kick that makes it fly across the screen damaging anything in the way without stopping until the player reaches the edge of the screen. Neff becomes a weird horned demon thing that can launch his head off and grow a new one instantaneously. As a result, Neff can fire up to five heads at the player at nearly the same time. The heads then fall straight to the ground. In the Acrade version of this stage Alex Kidd's name as well as Stella's are engraved on some of the destroyable tombstones. Zombies litter the place, including self destructing and hard punching Zombies.

Stage 2- The player is inside a cave. An enemy who would later appear as a steed in Golden Axe is in this stage. (it acts the same too.) Weird Rattlesnake things jump from the ground and ceiling vertically. Strange blobby things will jump on the players head and suck their health away but is easily destroyed by moving the directional button once it is on the player's head. The player Transforms into a Weredragon, which uses electric attacks. Punching makes the Weredragon shoot lightening from its fist while kicking causes it to generate lightening all over its body. Neff changes into a multi-eyed thingy, who can fire eyes at the player which slowly hover across screen.

Stage 3- In this stage the player is in a canyon. There are bottomless pits which will cause an instant death for the player and any enemies who fall in. The player transforms into a Werebear in this stage. The Werebear can turn oppnents to stone by pressing the punch button and can curl up into a ball and bounce with the kick button. Neff changes into a dragon with a snail shell. It must be attacked repeatedly to make its head come out of the snail shell in the arcade version if the player wishes to do any damange. Neff can also shoot slow moving Swirling fire to damage the player. (Hint: The Bouncing ability makes the fight easier in the Mega Drive/Genesis version of the game.)

Stage 4- The Player is getting closer to Neff's Lair. The player is now in some sort of sanctuary. Exploding Zombies make a reappearance in this stage. upon collecting three spirit balls the player changes into the Weretiger. The Weretiger is the same as the WereWolf except that all of its attacks are vertical. Neff changes into a floating dragon thing that shoots fire out of its belly and moves up and down as well as forward some. In the arcade version the fire can pretty much waste a single credit (3 lives) with one shot due to the knock down effect present in the game.

Stage 5- This is the underworld, complete with Unicorn men and Goat men as well as a host of other nasty new and old enemies. The player will turn into the Golden Werewolf, which as redundant as it is, is only slightly stronger than the regular Werewolf. That being said The attacks are the same.

Trivia

Altered Beast was the game that can bundled with the original North American release of the Genesis, making it the very First North American Genesis game. Altered Beast is now seen as a mediocre game by some. This is mainly due to rather poor attempts at reviving the series.

External Links

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