Another one of those Sega games that truly showed those peon fans of the 8-bit grey box Nintendo what they were missing out on by not owning a Mega Drive, Altered Beast helped roll in the rebellious attitude to gaming. But is this game actually good? I can't say that this one made its way into our system when we were younger more than other Genesis games like Kid Chameleon and WrestleMania, but Altered Beast has an addictive quality that makes it fun to pop in every now and then.

Produced and developed by Sega, with head design by Makoto Uchida, Altered Beast is a side-scrolling beat'em up that was released in arcades worldwide in 1988. Various home ports were developed, ranging from the ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and the PC Engine and PC Engine CD. Uchida didn't have any hands-on development with the Master System and Genesis ports.

The Genesis version is pretty faithful to its arcade daddy, doing a respectable job of emulating the graphics and music well enough. The controls feel a touch muddy, while there isn't much to its gameplay, there's a lack of cohesion and collision detection, and but its simplicity makes it adequately satisfying. Not to say there isn't more to the meta than Altered Beast's "walk right, hit things as things run directly at you". It was a simpler time with more straightforward goals; beat the s**t out of things with a bear

I'll say this about Altered Beast. Unlike Ecco the Dolphin, one of my most hated games on the planet, Altered Beast manages to overshadow some its lameness with enough of a degree of unbridled badassedry (informal, yes, but I'm sticking with it). The plot is as brain dead as it gets. Zeus' daughter Athena is kidnapped by Neff, lord of the underworld. Apparently forgetting that he's Zeus and could ask Poseidon, Hestia or even the damn Cyclops to go retrieve his daughter (or maybe get off his own ass and rescue her), Zeus just revives some random shmuck (sorry, he commands you to "WIHZE FROM YOU GWAVE!!") with the combat skills of Jim Varney (look at that graceful kick).

You're a bit of a pipsqueak (and by "pipsqueak", I mean sculpted Adonis that Vince McMahon would still sign him to a contract, despite no training whatsoever) upon waking up from death, so you need to power up. Fortunately, with the collection of a few mystical orbs, Mystery Undead Man doubles his physique as if injected himself with anabolic steroids after punching a few monsters and abominations before becoming a powerful beast from a Dio album cover. A short while after, you confront a different incarnation of Neff, as he transforms into a different demon at the end of each stage. This is simultaneously silly and one of the most metal things on the Genesis. The second half of the level turns into pure carnage as you spam energy attacks and charged dashes to rip through even more monsters and demons. 

As a co-op game, it might be a little more fun (and easy). Despite being pretty short, Altered Beast can be tough. The monsters you transform into are rad, they range from a wolfman, a dragon, a tiger hybrid, and my favorite, the bear. I think it would have been a nice touch to be able to select which one you transform into at the beginning of the game, but it give each stage something to look forward to when it comes to unleashing primal rage.

There is a cheat code for that, so...gravy, I guess. Compared to other arcadey button mashers, I don't think it's as fun as early brawlers on the Genesis like Golden Axe (which Uchida also worked on) and Streets of Rage, but Altered Beast remains on of the most iconic and recognizable games for the Genesis. Hell, chances are, every kid with a Genesis probably already had it, as Altered Beast was a pack-in game with a brand new console. BTW, how cool of an incentive is that? Thankfully, it wasn't embedded with one of those tacky NOT FOR RESALE stickers like Sonic the Hedgehog. With its great music supervision, appealing graphics, and transformation sequences, Altered Beast showed the envy of those who had yet to make the leap to the world of 16-bit. And at least its better than Bad Dudes.