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Review Information |
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Reviewer Name: |
Alekusu |
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Game Difficulty: |
Hard |
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Difficulty Options: |
False |
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Game Information |
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Full Title: |
Altered Beast |
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Year Released: |
1989 |
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Game Type: |
Fighting |
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Max Players: |
1 |
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| Introduction |
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| You were once a fearless Greek hero. You were slaughtered in the heat of a terrible war. Now, more than a hundred years after the brutal battle, you have risen from the grave thanks to Zeus, king of the gods. Though he gives you a second life, it is not for free, for you have been resurrected for a purpose. You must rescue his lovely daughter Athena, goddess of wisdom, from the claws of the evil Neff, Demon Lord of the Underworld. From the surface world to the black heart of the Underworld you must boldly go, fighting Neff's hellborn army. You will fight with many vile villains, including, but not limited to: headless horrors, skinny orcus, and the cerberus! But this time around you have been endowed with a savage advantage.... the power to "alter" into powerful creatures of unlimited fury! From a simple man to a muscleman... to WereWulf, WereDragon, WereTiger, and the most amazing of them all... the Golden WereWulf! Each form has supernatural powers. You will certainly need all of them... for Neff is an evil and fearsome foe. If oyu don't succeed in your daunting quest, Athena's fate will be to terrifying to describe. Win... and you may have Athena's hand in marriage, and a place in the Pantheon of Immortality! Remember your old battlecry.... Never give up!!!!!! |
| Gameplay |
| Let me tell you, this is definitely not your garden variety beat 'em up, because just by hearing the story and seeing the hero rise from his grave you know this is gonna be an awesome game. I must say, if you're a fan of myths, fighting games and platformers, then why not try this, because this may be the game you're looking for! Now so you know, this game has many "hooks". #1: The dark storyline, for there were not many games with a story like this at the time. #2: The concept, for there was no other game like this at the time. And #3 and the most noteworthy, hence the game's title: is the ability to become an amazing half-man, half-animal (or Altered Beast) First you start off as an ordinary guy, then get ripped into a muscleman, but then you become an Altered Beast! Hooooooooooowl! Werewolves of London! Pretty obvious is the fact that each beast is specific to each round( Though one of them appears twice,once on the first round and again on the last, though in a new color pallette). In round 1 you turn into a savage WereWulf, in round 2 a thunderous WereDragon, the third a WereTiger, the ultimate predator, and in the final round, round 4, a *Golden* WereWulf ( I told you they repeated a beast with different colors!). Hey, wait a sec.... where's the WereBear? OMG! They cut out the WereBear! Okay, fine. You probably don't care, 'cuz no one likes him anyway, since he dosen't have the savage, go-and-kill-them-all moves the others have. Well, you've more than likely managed to become the beast, so it's time to KICK SOME MAJOR DEMON BUTT! Then in a few moments, Neff appears (most likely thinking "Man! Can't my minions do anything right?") and faces you himself. Kill him and Cha-ching! Next Level! Now do this three more times and you've just scored you a date with a goddess! |
| Graphics |
| Wow, these graphics just aren't near as good as the Arcade game or Genesis version. Why? Just look at it! It's a horribly dumbed down port with really, really BAD scrolling, explosions that look like LEGO's, and washed out colors. And worst of all, the awesome tranformation cutscenes we know and love are basically "cruddified". In my opinion, Sega could have done much better. |
| Sound & Music |
| The programmer has just done a crime against humanity, it's called "he left out the epic "Rise from your grave" voiceclip, which because of that, the programmer will be burning in the underworld for all eternity. However.... if your SMS has FM the music well preserved. The tunes will probably be stuck in your head for quite a while. In a final verdict, the sound programmer did a pretty good job, though I still do not get why if he can put the "Power up", evil laugh and death scream voice effects in why couldn't he have at least put the "Rise from your grave" voice clip in. |
| Controls |
| The controls could have been a lot better. For the fact that could have just made it where you press Up, Up/Left, or Up/Right to jump instead of having to press 1 & 2 at the same time, which is quite annoying and makes it hard to jump. Even worse, if you attempt to hit an enemy and don't make it, you are basically a punching bag getting hit back and forth repeatedly, most likely dying because of it. In other words, the mechanics are just BAD! |
| Replay Value |
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| Trust me, when you play this, you will most likely not want to play it again. |
| Conclusion |
| Though the Sega Genesis, Famicom, and PC Engine versions are all great ports of one of my favorite games, this port is utter rubbish. Avoid this unless you are a collector or just an Altered Beast fan like myself. So glad I didn't ask for this for my upcoming 16th birthday! If I were you, just get the Genesis version. Seriously. |
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