The Filler Arc: Altered Beast (Genesis)

I always try to write about games that are relevant to things going on in gaming or in life at the time. Like I reviewed Sonic 1 due to the release of Sonic Lost World, or I reviewed Rayman in due to the release of Rayman Legends, to give a few examples. Sometimes though, life gets boring, and its hard to try and find things relevant to whats going on at those boring times. Thus, The Filler Arc, where I just throw a pen at my game collection and roll with it. These will be shorter reviews that take up space, covering smaller shorter games while regular reviews take up the meatier stuff.

SO LET'S PLAY SOME ALTERED BEAST.

Being an Arcade/Genesis game, the plot is very thin. Neff, a Demon God from the Underworld, has kidnapped Athena, goddess of wisdom. As such, Zeus commands a fallen centurion (or two if you have a second player) to WISE FWOM YOUR GWAVE! and save his daughter.

Altered Beast is a 2D Beat 'em Up game where your goal is to punch your way through enemies and defeat the boss waiting for you at the end. In terms of what you're capable of, you can only do the typical punches and kicks, as well as jumping. Things don't get interesting until you start getting Spirit Balls from certain enemies. Grabbing one of these increases your strength, and makes you instantly more ripped. Grabbing another grants even more strength, and makes you even more ripped. Grabbing a third one causes...

...to happen, granting maximum strength and the ability to fight the boss of the stage. After the boss is defeated, the power is stripped from you and you proceed to the next level.

Presentation wise, this game looks...alright. There's nothing much here that's really bad, but nothing really stands out. The soundtrack too, has a few good themes, but nothing that really stays with you after playing. And yes, this game has voices for certain things, and yes it's hilariously bad, with almost all of them becoming memes. Examples include POWER UP, WELCOME TO YOUR DOOM! and the previously mentioned WISE FWOM YOUR GWAVE!

This game is very short, at only 5 levels, meaning it can be cleared in less than an hour. However, as a whole, Altered Beast is just dull. There's not much to the gameplay, the presentation is average, and it's short to boot. The game may of been much larger when it came out, but it clearly doesn't hold up now. It's cheap and on plenty of systems, so it might be worth a shot, but if you go in it's best to keep your expectations low.

The Silent Protagonist want you to NEVER GIVE UP.

All images are the properties of their original owners. If I made them, then I would've tested the limits as to how ripped this guy can get.