Altered Beast

Review

by Jonathan Sutyak

Altered Beast is a cool concept, but an average game with sufficient challenges, all for the wrong reasons. Characters movements are what really make this game hard because you walk like a robot and react too slowly to fight off the on-screen enemies. Patience is the key to staying alive, but in a game like this, you shouldn't need patience. The beast transformation is the only thing to keep you playing, although changing into a beast can be difficult. You need to kill the white wolf to get a Spirit Ball for morphing power. Moving slowly, you are usually surrounded by other monsters when the fast moving wolf appears. Even identifying the white wolf can be hard because it flashes between white and gold.

Levels scroll to the right as you punch and kick enemies, or crouch and kick flying creatures that attack from above. The beasts -- werewolf, weredragon, weretiger, and gold werewolf -- have much better moves. Although level backgrounds look different, every level plays quite similar. Graphics are more detailed than most games on this system although flickering occurs when numerous enemies appear at once. Sound is an improvement over past games, but nothing spectacular.

Altered Beast stands out from other action games on the Master System because of the larger characters and interesting morphing concept. Unfortunately, it doesn't play very well. If you really want a copy of this Arcade hit, the Sega Genesis version is obviously a better choice. Other than the usual graphics and sound improvements, you also get a level with a werebear, plus a two-player option.