Altered Beast. Sega Genesis [No Damage Walkthrough] - Sega | SMD | Mega Drive | Sega Mega Drive Game

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Altered Beast[a] is a 1988 beat 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Sega. The game is set in Ancient Greece and follows a player character chosen by Zeus to rescue his daughter Athena from the demonic ruler of the underworld, Neff. By collecting three power-ups in a level, the player character transforms into one of five magical beasts. It was ported to several home video game consoles and home computers. Altered Beast was the pack-in game when the Genesis launched in North America and the Mega Drive in Europe.

The game's development was led by Makoto Uchida which was his first time as a project lead. Uchida and his team used the System 16 arcade system board.

Altered Beast's arcade release and its ports received mixed-to-positive reviews, mainly praising the gameplay and graphics. The game has been re-released several times for various consoles and as part of video game compilations, and there have been one sequel and one reboot.

Gameplay:
The game has five levels that can be played by two players simultaneously. Combat takes place across five levels set in Ancient Greece and populated by aggressive undead creatures and monsters resembling those from Greek mythology. The demonic god Neff waits at the end of each level. Between each level are small animations giving the player glimpses of Athena's peril. Players can punch, kick and jump.

The game's premise is that Neff, ruler of the underworld, captures the goddess Athena. Angry, her father, the Olympian god Zeus, decides to choose a champion to save her. Respecting the bravery of Roman Centurions, Zeus resurrects one of them and empowers him as a champion. The game's player character is the resurrected Roman Centurion, given extra power by Zeus so they can battle Neff and his supernatural minions. In the original arcade game, the end credits include the revelation that the whole game actually depicted a staged film production.

Whenever a player defeats a white two-headed wolf, a Spirit Ball power-up appears. Each obtained Spirit Ball increases the player character's strength and size. Collecting three Spirit Balls allows the player character to transform into a powerful beast form, increasing their combat abilities before having to face Neff at the end of the level. The player character's beast forms include a weredragon, a werebear, a weretiger, a werewolf, or a golden werewolf. Each beast form grants its own abilities. The dragon can unleash lightning bolts and an electric barrier, the bear has a petrifying breath that turns enemies into stone, the tiger can throw fireballs in a zig-zag pattern, the wolf can throw direct, but weak fireballs and has a powerful thrust attack, while the golden werewolf has the same abilities as the wolf form. In the Famicom version of the game, available beast forms also include a shark, lion, and phoenix form.

Development:
Altered Beast was developed by Makoto Uchida. He took inspiration for the game from The Howling and the music video for the Michael Jackson song "Thriller", as well as movies by Ray Harryhausen, and chose the Greek setting for the powerful characters he had in mind. Uchida admitted that he struggled during production because it was his first game he developed, and so he leaned on his lead programmer to help create balance in the gameplay.

One of Uchida's goals was to create flashy visuals that would surprise players, so he asked his lead artist to focus just on the player character's transformation sequences for one month. Additionally, he and his team used the System 16 arcade system board for its ability to add great detail to large character sprites, as well as the visual effects it could provide, such as limbs flying off characters during combat. Uchida was not impressed by the initial concept art, so he worked with an artist to sketch out his specific ideas on character design. While the results of this were positive, Uchida's lead designer quit the team over this situation. Altered Beast includes Easter eggs that are references to other System 16 titles Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars and Shinobi, as a nod to members on Uchida's team that had worked on those titles previously.

There were planned features for the game that Uchida did not have the opportunity to implement, namely a pressure-sensitive button. Discussions took place but a deal could not be reached with the owner of the patent of the pressure-sensitive device over the small number to be ordered. The failure to secure the button meant that half of the planned character actions had to be removed. Uchida claims that the reduced complexity of the game caused by this caused players to tire of Altered Beast quickly. Despite this, Uchida was proud of the reactions he was getting from players during play testing.

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