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Almost a masterpiece

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: November 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Altered Beast was an arcade game, and it was also on the Sega Genesis. This isn't the same game. I suppose we could say it's a sequel. As such, it stays true to the spirit of the original while offering some new twists and some very engaging game-play.

The story... Forget about the story. It's just enough of a story to justify the carnage going on. Some sort of evil demon wants to rule the world; and to combat this menace, Zeus has raised one of his defeated guardians from the dead. Why Zeus doesn't join in the fighting is beyond me. He's a typical god character (read: moron). To give our anonymous hero an edge, Zeus has granted him the ability to change into various types of beasts, most of which have awesome super powers.

The game is a side-scrolling fighting game with simple controls. Punch, kick, jump, duck. You can combine moves with jumping and crouching for jump kicks, crouching punches, uppercuts, and so forth. This is a simple matter of combining a button press with directional movement (i.e. Up plus Punch equals an uppercut). The controls work perfectly, offering us precise control over the character. Not having to struggle with the controls goes a long way toward providing an enjoyable gaming experience.

There are fifteen levels here, all with vividly rendered backgrounds and foregrounds. Enemy characters will come on-screen from the left and right, and the screen will scroll on its own when our hero has sufficiently cleared out an area. The levels are quite long, with droves of monsters that must be vanquished before our hero can confront the level's boss. Power-ups provide temporary benefits, such as a defensive shield or shock wave that clears the screen of enemies. There's also a health power-up and regeneration to help our hero stay healthy. When your guy advances far enough through the level, he can acquire a special power-up that increases his strength. When you get the third special power-up, he transforms into his beast form. These beasts have super powers and can often clear the screen of enemies with little effort. Finally, the beast squares off with a boss, most of which are challenging and require some strategy to beat.

There are ten beast forms. Werewolf, naga, dragon, tiger-man, spiked turtle, shark-man, rhino-man, scorpion, eagle, and chimera. While there are a couple levels that allow you to get your beast form early on, most of the levels are played in human form and you get your beast form toward the end. I'd say that for most levels, we play two thirds or more of it in human form. Each beast has three alternate power levels that can be acquired by replaying the level and grabbing a talisman that improves the beast's abilities. Another benefit of replaying levels you've already beaten is that extra lives and extra continues appear.

This game is pretty difficult. The first time I played, I went through all three of my lives and two continues just getting through the first level. It takes some practice to become proficient with it. What at first looked impossible soon becomes very manageable. One thing I really like about this game is that it's based almost entirely on skill. The more you practice, the better it gets. With the learning curve conquered, it's very possible to beat a level without getting killed once. The game auto-saves your progress, including extra lives, continues, and talismans. Playing a couple levels and then coming back to it later isn't a problem.

Visually, this game is fantastic. The backgrounds look fabulous. Ruins of a Grecian city, underground caverns, swampland, forest, desert, and more... All vividly rendered with great detail. The characters are well animated. Each level has a good variety of enemy characters. One-eyed zombies, skeletal warriors, goat-men, spider centaurs, bats, tree-men, killer wasps, lizards, scorpion rats, praying mantises... And these are just some of the enemies in the first five levels (of fifteen total). The hero's beast forms are dynamic, as are the boss characters. I especially like the naga, and the large worm boss he has to fight.

Background music is unobtrusive and does a great job of setting the mood for each scene. The boss music is very fitting. Sound effects are what one might expect from an arcade game. A good variety of grunts and growls from the monsters, punching and kicking effects, and a variety of beast form effects.

My complaints with this game are few. It would've been nice to have the option of deciding which beast form to use. This would provide versatility, an opportunity for experimentation. As it stands, each level decides for you what beast form you'll use there. Also, it would've been nice if the beast forms appeared earlier in the levels. Mostly, we have to spend quite a bit of time in human form before the beast finally makes an appearance.

Still, the payoff here is more than present and accounted for. The game kept me playing, to find out what the next level looked like, what sorts of new enemies stood in our hero's way, and what his next beast form would be like. Some of these levels have great replay value. In fact, I'd say that most of the game does.

On the whole, Altered Beast: Guardian Of The Realms succeeds brilliantly in just about every respect. It sports great-looking environments and characters, a good soundtrack, good effects, and some very engaging game-play. It's solid fun, built for lasting appeal.

Solid good old skool genesis fun!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: September 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When I found out this game existed I knew I had to get it. Who can forget Altered Beast, the game that came with the Genesis console. It was also in the video game arcades too. I was suspicous about this game because most reviews say its bad. Many reviews say this game plays like the original one, so I got it. This is a COMPLETE remake of Altered Beast, hooray, its not the orignal version. So don't expect starting the game in the "grave yard" level, now you start in "ancient greece". Then you kill away collecting different things. You grow buffer and buffer and eventually turn into a powerful beast with its own attacks. For those who don't know Altered Beast or young generation gamers, this is still a good game, it has actual gameplay.

Dang, all the reviews are wrong! This game totally rocks! The graphics are very nice and impressive but not spectacular. There are multiple layers of background, nice "3-D" effect for a 2-D side scrolling game. Its got a nice mythological and fantasy themes. Like the haunted forest level, Egyptian desert, underwater world, molten lava, Greece ruins, and much more! The sound is good, it has good music, sound effect, and voice effect! The control is solid, predictable, the jump height is variable, movement is allowed in air during jumps. The control is even better than the original one if I remember right, long long time ago! The gameplay is superb, just like the original one. The gameplay is somewhat slow. Many monsters are constantly coming at you and the action is simple yet fast and exciting. The gameplay is so simple that at times you can view the backgrounds or check out other graphics while killing away, cool, so this is not a precise nerdy game but still challenging. One major drawback of this game is that you can't SAVE!

This game is similar to old games like Ghosts n goblin or ghost n ghouls, double dragon, golden axe, kung fu master, rampage, and final fight. New games like.... hmmm, can't think of any.

Instead of just 5 levels like the original version, there are 15! All different! There are a lot of different beast transformations! Overall this game is very good, its even better than the original. A great new remake of a timeless classic. BUY it!

The beast is back

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: January 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Older gamers will remember the original Altered Beast as a hard as hell quarter muching arcade beat 'em up that eventually made its' way to the Sega Genesis way back in 1989. Those who loved that game, despite the numerous flaws, will no doubt find some level of enjoyment with this GBA sequel/remake, but younger gamers who never played the original will hate this game with a passion. The storyline is you have been resurrected by Zeus to stop the evil Arcanon from taking over different realms. You are able to transform into different beasts by collecting power orbs from defeated enemies and they contain a number of different attacks to be at your disposal. Other than that you can punch and kick as well, but you can also gain abilities such as regeneration, a shield, and increased speed, and even though the effects don't last very long, they are a welcome addition the original didn't offer. The graphics are colorful and the characters are large, but the animation and sound are rather choppy. The controls are just as sluggish as the original's, while the fighting is still as simply controled as ever. All in all, older gamers who actually dug the original will find a good bit of fun with this, but younger gamers who never had the chance to play the original should avoid this.

Altered Beast: Guardian of the Realms

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I reccomend this game for anyone who played and loved the orginal Sega Genesis Altered Beast. This game is a sequel to the orginal Altered Beast. I was amazed with how real the background were and you felt almost like you have been transported to Ancient Greece. The control are excellent and easy to learn, I didn't even bothered reading the instruction manual. For those who haven't played Altered Beast before might find the action too slow compared to today's newer games. I give this game a perfect five because this is how a classic game should be made perfect improvement upon the orginal.

This game did not age well

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: March 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I was a fan of the original Altered Beast (Before Sega Genesis) and I used to plop several quarters in the machine when I was a kid.

This version on Gameboy however did not age well. First of all, the creatures that player morphs into in the game are badly drawn out. Secondly, the game is repetitious to the point where it gets tiring. The biggest problem however is the small GBA screen which makes it difficult to move your character around. In the Arcade, there was a benefit of a large screen and it makes all the difference in the world.

THQ did their best in making the game but I think the concept was tired out and it should of be laid to rest. I can only recommend this to Hardcore fans.

Pretty decent remake and followup

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: March 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Based on the original Altered Beast the game did not disappoint.
Its good to see Sega at least try to use some of their
old gems back to life.

The game follows the same path as the original but adds
in more effects, monsters and sound to provide
a good experience.

The graphics were ok, but the whole thing was pretty cool.

Mineless Combat

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: March 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Traditional Gamer - See "Golden Sun" for more information. I sorry but beating up tons of monsters is not a fun game.

Unbelieveable

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 10
Date: June 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I really enjoyed the game on Sega Genesis, but now there's a sequel on GBA? I am quite surprised. As I have not played the sequel yet, I put 3 stars until I have played it. But on GBA? I'm not sure it'll be all that great, but let's hope I'm wrong.

BEST GAME I HAVE EVER REVIEWED!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Dang "Hero","Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon",and "House of Flying Daggers" had me lookin for Da perfect martial arts game. 'Altered Beast is the next best thing' I thought as I walked into the store. I WAS RIGHT!!!!! ORDER IT OR STOP READING MY REVIEW AND GO TO A STORE! 5/5 dudes.

Auto-Fire Punch Button

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: November 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've seen DIGIMON GAMES that are more interesting than this game. And we all know what age group digimon is for.

The storyline: you must retrieve a lot of amulets (or something). There are several parts of each special item (whatever it is), each of which product a slightly different result. Each item transforms you into something, and you've got to keep repeating the levels in order to get all the versions of that item. In the first level, you become a werewolf. The second time through, I think the werewolf was blue. I couldn't identify the morph form on the second level.

So, if you want a fighting game so interesting that it rivals Harvest Moon, then go ahead. If you want a fighting game that's intersting, try Mortal Combat. Or a digimon game. Both are better than this.

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