Altered Beast (history and reception)

Altered Beast began as a Sega arcade game. Akagi Masumi's Arcade TV Game List dates it to June 1988 both in Japan, where it is 獣王記 (Jūōki), a Sega game on the System 16B board, and in its overseas part, where Sega USA's Altered Beast is listed under the same month. altered-beast-history/arcade-release

The list is a 2005 reference compilation, not a period source, and the pinned copy is its OCR text, which has no page breaks; the page images haven't been checked. No arcade flyer, operator's manual, or dated trade listing has been read for this set.

Cited by: Altered Beast

Your Sinclair reported in October 1988 that Mediagenic (formerly Activision) had signed the rights to a number of Sega's new arcade releases, Altered Beast among them, and in January 1989 The One named Activision's conversions of Sega's Galaxy Force and Altered Beast among the releases to come. altered-beast-history/computer-licence

Cited by: Altered Beast

Sega's own list of the Mega Drive software it published gives 獣王記 (Jūōki) a release date of 27 November 1988. altered-beast-history/mega-drive-release

The list is Sega's retrospective web page, captured in 2024; it names no source for its dates.

Cited by: Altered Beast

In North America the game came packed with the Genesis. Computer Entertainer reported in June 1989 that the Genesis would be available in September with one control pad and "the arcade hit, ALTERED BEAST", and its August 1989 preview of the Genesis software said Altered Beast is packaged with the system. Electronic Gaming Monthly reported in September 1991 that Sonic would replace it as the Genesis pack-in from that month. altered-beast-history/genesis-pack-in

Cited by: Altered Beast

Computer Entertainer's August 1989 review of the Genesis version, the one game in its preview not reviewed from a preliminary test copy, called it one of the best games anywhere and rated it four stars of four for graphics and four of four for game play. It summed up the premise as a warrior summoned by Zeus to rescue Athena who enters the Underworld with the power to transform into mythical creatures: a werewolf on the first level, which three Spirit Balls turn into a fireball-throwing werewolf, then a weredragon, a werebear, and a weretiger, on the way to fighting Neff, who has Athena. altered-beast-history/genesis-computer-entertainer

{
 "review": "Computer Entertainer",
 "of": 4,
 "scores": {
  "graphics": 4,
  "game play": 4
 }
}

The issue's rating key (p. 2) gives the first set of stars as graphics and the second as game play, out of four. The ratings were read on the page image; the slash between the sets crosses the fourth graphics star, and no "1/2" is printed, so the graphics mark is read as four.

Cited by: Altered Beast

The same August 1989 issue reviewed Sega's Master System version, "an anxiously awaited title", and found that Sega had done a remarkably good job of packing the game into the 8-bit system; it rated it three stars of four for graphics and four of four for game play. It gives the premise as rescuing Zeus's daughter Athena from Neff, Lord of the Underworld, with the power to transform into a werewolf, weredragon, weretiger and more. altered-beast-history/master-system-computer-entertainer

{
 "review": "Computer Entertainer",
 "of": 4,
 "scores": {
  "graphics": 3,
  "game play": 4
 }
}

The issue's rating key (p. 2) gives the first set of stars as graphics and the second as game play, out of four. The ratings were read on the page image.

Cited by: Altered Beast

Asmik released a Famicom version, 獣王記 (Jūōki), in Japan on 20 July 1990 at ¥5,900. Famicom Tsushin's release schedule of 22 June 1990 listed it as an Asmik cartridge at ¥5,900, previewed it in July as an Asmik release for 20 July at ¥5,900, and carried it on the 20th of its release schedule; a retrospective Famicom catalog gives the same date. altered-beast-history/famicom-release

The release-schedule rows in Famicom Tsushin 104 (image 202) and 106 (image 218) stand under the heading "7月発売のソフト" (July releases), read on the page images. The catalog is an unsigned retrospective mook that names no source for its dates.

Cited by: Altered Beast

The Famicom manual's cover gives the cartridge code ASM-9J. Its back page names 株式会社アスミック (Asmik Corporation) of Shinjuku, Tokyo, as publisher (発売元), prints "©1989 ASMIK ©1988 SEGA", and marks the cartridge "FOR SALE and USE IN JAPAN ONLY", forbidding export, commercial use, and rental. altered-beast-history/famicom-cartridge

The cover, the back page, and the enemy page (image 27) carry no staff or developer credit; the other inner pages haven't been checked for one, so who programmed the Famicom version is unknown here.

Cited by: Altered Beast

The Famicom manual's story: in an age when heaven and earth were still in chaos there lived a race of beast-men (獣人族) with the powers of both man and beast, who could change into warriors by force of spirit; they wished to rule the earth and become gods, and Zeus sealed them in a stone monument. More than a thousand years later Zeus's daughter, the goddess Athena, led an army to the aid of the underworld god Hades and was captured by the underworld's demon. A single man came out of a stone monument near Zeus's temple: "Go, beast warrior! Go and rescue my daughter Athena!" altered-beast-history/famicom-premise

The OCR garbles the story's text; the quotes are the legible stretches, and the page image (image 4) is the check.

Cited by: Altered Beast

In the Famicom manual, when the LIFE gauge runs out the player loses one life, and when every life is lost the game is over. After a game over, Start on the title screen's CONTINUE continues from the start of the last stage played, up to three times. To rescue Athena the player must clear 8 stages, where monsters and bosses in the shape of demons wait. A boss transforms too when the player meets it as a beast-man; while the player is still human it does not attack, until its third appearance, when it attacks either way. altered-beast-history/famicom-rules

The stage count, 8つのステージ, was read on the page image (image 11, printed p. 10); Famicom Tsushin's preview also counts eight (famicom-new-stages).

Cited by: Altered Beast

The Famicom manual gives a free-play method: hold down on the control pad on the title screen and press Reset; when FREE PLAY is shown, the player can continue any number of times from the start of the last stage played. altered-beast-history/famicom-free-play

Cited by: Altered Beast

In the Famicom manual, up on the control pad jumps and pressing it twice in a row makes a high jump; left and right move, and down crouches. A punches and B kicks. Up and A punches while jumping, up and B kicks while jumping, down and A crouches and punches, and down and B kicks enemies coming from the sky. Start starts the game, and pressed during play pauses it until it is pressed again. Famicom Tsushin's preview recommends the kick for its longer reach. altered-beast-history/famicom-controls

The manual's controls were read on the page images (images 6 and 7); its text layer garbles them. Famicom Tsushin's preview calls the double up-press a two-step jump (2段ジャンプ); the manual calls it a high jump.

Cited by: Altered Beast

In the Famicom manual, each Spirit Ball the beast warrior takes powers his body up from Normal Body to Muscle Body to Maximum Body; one more at Maximum Body brings his spirit to its limit and he transforms into a beast-man, with new moves and much greater attack power. Spirit Balls form inside the albino (white) Rattle-tail wolf and come out when it is beaten; one taken as a beast-man restores one segment of LIFE. altered-beast-history/famicom-transformation

Cited by: Altered Beast

Famicom Tsushin's July 1990 preview said the Famicom version, after the Mega Drive, the PC Engine, and other machines, added stages of its own: three new stages, for eight in all, with new transformation patterns, attack methods, and bosses. Its stage notes call the second stage, a dark grassland, and the fifth, a sea-floor stage, original to the Famicom version, and point out that the fifth stage's beast is a shark, not a dolphin. altered-beast-history/famicom-new-stages

The count of eight and the stage-5 line were read on the page image (image 39); the Famicom manual also counts eight stages (famicom-rules). The advertisement on image 85 is read from the OCR.

Cited by: Altered Beast

Asmik's two-page advertisement in Famicom Tsushin of 3 August 1990, announcing the game on sale that day at ¥5,900 before tax, shows eight stage beasts: a wolf, a lion, a dragon, a bear, a shark, a tiger, a phoenix, and a gold wolf. altered-beast-history/famicom-ad-beasts

The eight beast panels were read on the page images; the text layer garbles them.

Cited by: Altered Beast

The same preview set the Mega Drive, PC Engine, and Famicom versions side by side. Its captions call the Mega Drive version the first port, relatively easy because difficulty can be chosen before play; the PC Engine version the most faithful to the arcade game, its difficulty kept and a little hard; and the Famicom version the easiest of the three and so easy to pick up, with sound faithful to the arcade game. altered-beast-history/famicom-version-comparison

The captions and which version each describes were read on the page image (image 39); the OCR runs them together.

Cited by: Altered Beast

Famicom Tsushin's cross review of 3 August 1990 listed Jūōki (Asmik, cartridge, ¥5,900, 20 July) as the side-scrolling fighting action game that, after the arcade, the Mega Drive, and the PC Engine, comes to the Famicom, in which taking an item turns the hero into a beast and powers him up. Its four reviewers, unnamed on the page, gave 6, 6, 6, and 3. The first, blaming mainly the hardware, recalled that the game's selling point had been the size of its characters, but found changing into a beast felt good. The second advised taking it as a different game from the arcade one, with smaller characters and a different flavor, though not a dull one. The third found it comparatively easy next to the very hard arcade and PC Engine versions, so powering up and transforming come easily, but regretted how plain the characters had become. The fourth, giving 3, said the characters are small and there are no transformation scenes at all, that it is better taken as something wholly different from the original, and that collectors might do well to buy it now. altered-beast-history/famicom-cross-review

Value: review Famicom Tsushin · of 10 · reviewers 6, 6, 6, 3

Read on the page image (image 17): the four marks are printed as large numerals behind each comment, top to bottom; no reviewer names or initials are printed in the box, and the page prints no scale (the magazine's cross review is out of 10). One clause of the first comment, on what falls short (□□度は落ちる), couldn't be settled and isn't quoted. The first and fourth comments disagree on the transformations.

Cited by: Altered Beast

No North American NES release of Altered Beast appears in Nintendo of America's list of licensed NES games, and the Famicom cartridge is marked for sale in Japan only. altered-beast-history/nes-not-released

Nintendo's list is a later compilation of licensed North American releases; an absence from it is evidence, not proof. No source for a European NES release has been read.

Cited by: Altered Beast

Your Sinclair reviewed Activision's ZX Spectrum version in November 1989, at £9.99 on cassette. The review called a monochrome Spectrum conversion of a coin-op beat-'em-up "a bit of a cop-out" and found this one in color, "a bit like Karnov", with sprites in their own colors and backgrounds taking on a sprite's color as it passes. It walks through the Graveyard, Forest, Cave, and Temple and back to the Graveyard; it faulted levels that are too short, kicks that look like ballet, and a busy screen, but said the game "pushes the Speccy to its limits". The review is signed Phil. Its marks: life expectancy 66, graphics 79, instant appeal 79, addictiveness 76, and 80 overall; the diagnosis: "Little niggles here and there but very adventurous (and gory)." altered-beast-history/spectrum-your-sinclair

Value: review Your Sinclair · of 100 · score 80

Image 72 carries the folio 71, so image 73 is p. 72. The marks were read on the page image.

Cited by: Altered Beast

Sinclair User reviewed the ZX Spectrum version in November 1989 under the heading "Big licence gets the Activision treatment". Its Fax Box gives the label as Activision, the author as "In House", and the price as £8.99, and marks it graphics 67, sound 65, playability 74, lastability 69, and 70 overall; the reviewer's name is left blank. The review retells the premise, Zeus raising the player from the dead to rescue Athena from the evil Nelf, and says three power-ups on a level transform the player into a wolf, a bear, or a dragon. It called the coin-op "a fairly wicked affair" with great graphics, which made the conversion seem "a little lacking": the scrolling was slow and jerky, with attribute clash "bordering on the painful". altered-beast-history/spectrum-sinclair-user

Value: review Sinclair User · of 100 · score 70

Image n shows printed page n in this issue (contents index). The Fax Box was read on the page image; the page spells the villain Nelf, which the OCR reads as Neif.

Cited by: Altered Beast

Crash reviewed the ZX Spectrum version in December 1989 among its Christmas line-up, crediting it to Activision/Software Studio at £9.99, on cassette only; the review opens with Zeus's command to rise from the grave and rescue his daughter. Nick gave it 74%, finding that the presentation "just knocks you back"; Mark gave 61%: "Altered Beast isn't dire, but Activision could have done better." Its ratings: presentation 79%, graphics 73%, sound 74%, playability 68%, addictivity 65%, and 67% overall. altered-beast-history/spectrum-crash

Value: review Crash · of 100 · score 67

Image n shows printed page n in this issue. The review is on this page only. Its marks, comments, and the price were read on the page image (the digits are faint; OVERALL 67% is clear on a 2x crop); the OCR is too garbled for them.

Cited by: Altered Beast

Ocean later sold the ZX Spectrum version in its Power Up compilation, which Crash's review of June 1991 lists at £15.99, with Chase HQ, Rainbow Islands, X-Out, and Turrican. Crash gave the pack 90% overall and Altered Beast 18 out of 20. altered-beast-history/spectrum-power-up

Value: review Crash · of 20 · score 18

The price and Altered Beast's mark were read on the page image. The page number is cut off at the bottom of the image; p. 35 is the contents index's.

Cited by: Altered Beast

The Hit Squad reissued the Amiga version at £7.99. It entered Amiga Power's charts at number 13 in January 1992, and the same issue's budget review, by Stuart Campbell, gave it 54 percent: the Amiga version is a pale shadow of its other incarnations, "with all the original gameplay intact but hampered by jerky scrolling and imprecise collision detection". altered-beast-history/amiga-hit-squad

Value: review Amiga Power · of 100 · score 54

The two stars are Amiga Power's chart rating. The mark, 54 PERCENT, and the byline STUART CAMPBELL were read on the page image of p. 107; the mark isn't in the OCR. The review's header (publisher, price) is on p. 106, not read.

Cited by: Altered Beast