{"id":1168,"date":"2023-04-07T19:30:33","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T23:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/reviews\/?p=1168"},"modified":"2023-04-07T21:13:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T01:13:24","slug":"altered-beast-issue-44","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/reviews\/index.php\/2023\/04\/07\/altered-beast-issue-44\/","title":{"rendered":"Altered Beast \u2014 Issue 44"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Beast &<\/span> Co. alter gaming<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As a young lad grow\u00ading up in the era of arcades (AKA<\/span> the gold\u00aden age of gam\u00ading) one of the for\u00admer kings of gam\u00ading, Sega was the name that had instant recog\u00adni\u00adtion with me. From titles like After Burn\u00ader, Out\u00adrun, Shi\u00adno\u00adbi, and Vir\u00adtu\u00adal Fight\u00ader, Sega has mas\u00adtered the art of sep\u00ada\u00adrat\u00ading one from their gam\u00ading tokens with\u00adout fail. Dur\u00ading my arcade trav\u00adels, I saw a Sega title that turned out to be not only a clas\u00adsic arcade hit, but also was the inspi\u00adra\u00adtion for the Bloody Roar series: the revered but maligned Altered Beast for the Genesis.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Altered Beast, you take on the role of an ancient Roman Cen\u00adtu\u00adri\u00adon war\u00adrior res\u00adur\u00adrect\u00aded by Zeus to res\u00adcue his daugh\u00adter Athena who was kid\u00adnapped by the under\u00adworld ruler Neff. As this unnamed war\u00adrior, you do have a small-but-pow\u00ader\u00adful advan\u00adtage over Neff and his armies: the abil\u00adi\u00adty to pow\u00ader up into var\u00adi\u00adous beasts that change the tide of the bat\u00adtle. With this abil\u00adi\u00adty, the Cen\u00adtu\u00adri\u00adon war\u00adrior sets off on his divine man\u00addate to res\u00adcue Athena and defeat Neff. <\/span><\/p>\n

Game\u00adplay of Altered Beast is real\u00adly sim\u00adple: As some\u00adone who played side-scrolling games, I instant\u00adly took to the basic punch, kick and jump mechan\u00adics. As you go through each ene\u00admy, you\u2019ll get a pow\u00ader-up orb that lit\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly says \u201cPow\u00ader-up!\u201d; this made me think that Zeus came down and gave com\u00admands. On the third pow\u00ader-up, you\u2019ll go into your actu\u00adal beast mode, which con\u00adsists of forms such as a drag\u00adon, were\u00adwolf, were\u00adbear, weretiger, and a gold\u00aden were\u00adwolf, each with their own unique pow\u00aders. At this point, I\u2019m think\u00ading that this game is the ori\u00adgin for the pop\u00adu\u00adlar phase \u201cBeast Mode.\u201d At the end of each lev\u00adel, you bat\u00adtle Neff in var\u00adi\u00adous forms. <\/span>The graph\u00adics are pret\u00adty good for a tran\u00adsi\u00adtion from arcade to 16-bit con\u00adsole with lit\u00adtle notice\u00adable dif\u00adfer\u00adence in qual\u00adi\u00adty for the time period. <\/span><\/p>\n

Altered Beast does have a few flaws: When you defeat Neff at the end of each stage, he some\u00adhow takes away your pow\u00ader-up forms as a last part\u00ading shot, which is obnox\u00adious. Also, the brief inter\u00admis\u00adsion scenes are grainy, mak\u00ading it hard to under\u00adstand what\u2019s going on. On the bright side, the replay val\u00adue is awe\u00adsome for those who want to relieve the gold\u00aden days of the Gen\u00ade\u00adsis and those who want side scrolling action with a mix of horror.<\/span><\/p>\n

Altered Beast is one of Sega\u2019s clas\u00adsic gems that is wor\u00adthy of anoth\u00ader look. There was a mod\u00adern-day remake released in 2005 for PS2<\/span>, but it was crit\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly panned. For\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, Sega decid\u00aded to give Altered Beast anoth\u00ader look, this time plac\u00ading it among its oth\u00ader well-known prop\u00ader\u00adties in var\u00adi\u00adous TV<\/span> and film projects. Sega altered the side-scrolling land\u00adscape with this epic tale of good ver\u00adsus evil.<\/span><\/p>\n