Play Altered Beast Online

Summary

When the arcade lights flicker and a booming voice shouts, "Awaken, dead warrior!" you feel Zeus’s thunderous call echo through the cabinet. The Roman centurion you control is resurrected, then thrust into a side‑scrolling beat‑'em‑up where every punch, kick, and jump feels weighty thanks to Sega’s System 16 board, which lets the sprites rip and limbs fly in spectacular detail.

Collecting three glowing Spirit Balls in a level triggers the game’s signature metamorphosis: you become a mythic beast. Each form—werewolf, weredragon, werebear, weretiger, and the final golden werewolf—brings its own attack, from lightning bolts and electric barriers to fire‑spitting zigzags and petrifying breath. The transformations aren’t just cosmetic; they swell your size and power, letting you tear through the undead hordes that populate the underworld’s five stages.

Between the stages, a bald‑headed sorcerer snatches your power‑ups, forcing you to fight back for every upgrade you’ve earned. The level design throws quirky challenges at you, like head‑sucking enemies that can be shaken off with a rapid left‑right joystick flick, and flashing white wolves that hide extra power‑ups. Hidden nods to other System 16 classics—Alex Kidd and Shinobi—pop up as Easter eggs, a wink to the team that built them.

Director Makoto Uchida drew inspiration from the horror of *The Howling*, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, and Ray Harryhausen’s monster movies, choosing a Greek myth backdrop to match the larger‑than‑life creatures. Though the arcade version was more beloved overseas than in Japan, I still see crowds gathering around the cabinet in US arcades, proof that the game’s flashy transformations and relentless action have a timeless pull.

Storyline

In the arcade classic Altered Beast, Zeus resurrects a fallen Roman centurion and tasks him with rescuing his daughter Athena from the demonic ruler Neff of the Underworld. The hero gains the power to absorb spirit balls, allowing him to morph into animal‑human hybrids that match each stage’s challenges. He battles through a graveyard of zombies and winged demons, then into the Underworld where giant leeches, dragon‑headed rattlesnakes and chicken‑like stingers stand in his way, transforming into a werewolf to defeat Neff’s Aggar form. Subsequent realms – the Cavern of Souls, Neff’s palace and the fiery realm of Dis – each introduce new foes such as ant‑like Cave Needles, hammer demons, goat and boar men, and a rhinoceros‑man, prompting further transformations into a thunder‑dragon, bear, tiger and finally a golden werewolf. After Neff’s defeat, a blue bird emerges, reverts to Athena, and the two embrace, while the original arcade’s credits reveal the whole adventure was staged like a film production.