Whenever I see Altered Beast getting mentioned here, or around the web overall, it's in a negative manner... I know that as a pack in it can't compare to Sonic 1, but it was still a good choice for 1989 and 1990, it showed that the Genesis could give a genuine arcade experience at home, and Altered Beast overall is an excellent and fun sidescrolling beat 'em up, it's looks, OST and atmosphere rock.
So... how did you all feel about Altered Beast way back, when it came out and was the Genesis pack in title? Did players like it at all or was the overall opinion on it more mixed like it is nowadays too?
 Ape Out Shirt $21.68 |
 UFOs Are A Psyop Shirt $21.68 |
Ape Out Shirt $21.68 |
I liked the arcade version, the home port was garbage, just like Golden Axe.
Fair enough, of course it'll be quite inferior to the arcade original, though I still think it's good on its own right, and a competent port... what did it get so wrong compared to the original, for you? Also, I'm curious about Goldex Axe too, since I thought that played fine on Genesis aswell, what were its major flaws as a port from your experience with these ports, anon?
>the home port was garbage
sure, in retrospect
for 89, this is a pretty competent port of an arcade title for home consoles imo
you got big sprites, almost all the colors, good sounding music
you gotta think arcade ports in the 80s were usually rather shoddy, and often just wholly different games. wasnt until like saturn and Dreamcast where arcade ports being more or less perfect became the standard. so 89 is pretty early to be doing it even this good.
and i think as a pack-in it served its purpose perfectly: it demonstrated that the genesis was the console you wanted if you wanted to play arcade games at home, which was segas whole marketing angle at the time
sonic was obviously the superior choice as a pack-in, but they hadnt fricking made it yet so WISE FWOM YOUW GWAVE!!!!!
tbf the 5200 was actually another good early console for arcade ports.
but you were obviously limited by 1
>playing a fricking 5200 at all
and 2
>could only really handle old single-screen arcade games and simple stuff like defender
compare that with the genesis and its bigass colorful detailed sprites, porting much more recent/popular games, and its pretty easy to see why it would turn heads back then. little johnny was down the street playing shitty little 8-bit nintendo crap, and if he wanted to play altered beast he had to go wait in line at the laundromat for the cabinet to open up and feed it quarters. meanwhile you and your buddies could just hang out in your living room and take turns ad infinitum
This.
A lot of people have this "It's inferior to the arcade and therefore it sucks" as if it has no merit, when this port came out it was quite insane for most players to see something so accurate to the arcade at home, sure arcade ports weren't perfected until Saturn and the Dreamcast especially, but Genesis was solid.
The Dreamcast really was the fricking arcade machine.
arcade ports existed since the 2600 era
and were mostly good
echochamber on youtube usually only shows the one pacman game that did poorly
there were additional later releases that were better
and even a near perfect homebrew recently
chadlecovision?
STACKED with arcade hitters
nintendo entertainment system?
their first batch of games were arcade ports like donkey kong & mariobros
sometkmes the home port is actually more fun than the original pcb
joust, contra, guerilla war
>arcade ports existed since the 2600 era
arcade ports for 2600 usually sucked ass dude
there were definitely some good enough ones like 2600 defender, but i mean its the 2600. bob polaro did his damndest to make a good approximation, and its fun in its own right, but its just a different game. compare it to the 5200 defender which IS pretty much arcade perfect
and the list goes on
>q*bert
clunky trash on 2600
actually good on 5200
>mountain king
ok on 2600
arcade perfect on 5200
>robotron
etc etc
thats why i mentioned the 5200 as the console prior to the genny where youd go for arcade ports
but again, for that you had to play a 5200 bummer, own a functioning controller nigh impossible, and were limited to golden-era games that by that point were often 5 or 6yrs old suxxx
>just like Golden Axe
I mean, it expectedly had worse graphics and sound than the version on an arcade board that is much, much more expensive, but I've played both a while ago and I remember the gameplay itself being the same as the arcade version with a few changes in the levels plus a bonus level
They had to make compromises in the audiovisual department but it was a good port all things considered
Yeah did Golden Axe had different gameplay? I didn't like the extra stage they added though. It even tries to do platforming with that shitty controls. I didn't beat it because of it.
idk man, I love Golden Axe but I hate Altered Beast
I have arcade and genesis. I like both.
It's generally liked by people who got it as pack in. I like arcade version. Genesis port doesn't feel exciting unlike arcade.
Another issue is I think people don't like arcade ports in general NES being the exception. NES had arcade like ports for the first time and some of them improved above arcade. If they were inferior to arcade version they had something else to make it feel exciting. I'm not talking about different games like Contra, but rather ports.
Genesis arcade ports have some uninteresting level, boss added for the sake of it. Even when it's a good port it kinda feels like whatever.
I never even knew about the Genesis version back then, because I had Nintendo consoles only. I liked the arcade version though. I imagine I would have been disappointed with the Genesis port since it weakens the original game's only great strength: its audiovisual beauty. If I'd played the Genesis one first, though, I'd probably have liked it I guess. It's a basic sort of a game but it works well enough mechanically to succeed in its mission of delivering cool pictures of cool monsters.
RISE FROM YOUR GRAAaAAVE!!!
i cant replay it, or boot it up ever again
my ex gf and i playedbeat it together
it just makes me bummed out
she ruined puyopuyo too ;_;
Negative? Really? I mostly hear about people liking it and being nostalgic for it, not hating on it.
Just play the PS2 version, it will ruin it even harder for you. They turned it into a shitty sci-fi Resident Evil bootleg. Your character is now a Generic Action Guy™ who was experimented on to give him powers to transform into animals... if he beats the boss first and steals the chip that he somehow installs inside his body to allow him to transform into that animal.
what the FRICK hahaha
There was also a longer Gameboy Advance game that plays like the original.
i wouldn't say the PS2 one "ruined" it, more like it really has nothing to do with the original game at all and should have just used a different name for the game
also the final boss in that game sucked fricking dicks, 7 fricking stages
Anon, you just need positive memories to counter the bad ones. Don't let her ruin things for you.
Slow boring gameplay loop. Bad unresponsive controls.
how are the controls "unresponsive"?
>gameplay loop
Spotted
I played Alter'd Beast pretty close to the day it was released on a friend's Genesis. It sucked. Everyone I know who's played it thought it sucked, it's just not a fun game.
I think most of the hate comes from people comparing it to other later Genesis games vs. other SEGA arcade games during that time period like Golden Axe. I still need to play through this game myself
Altered Beast was an early example of prioritizing graphics over gameplay, once the graphics were no longer impressive people realized it just wasn't very fun.
Hardcore Sega players that only had that one game played it a lot and liked it. People who don't know anything about it or who only had Nintendo consoles think it is lame. Memers who go by what Youtube tells them think it is a meme. People who genuinely played it with an open mind think it's jank as hell but has some merits.
It's got a lot of soul but mechnically its ass compared to other beat em ups from around the same time.
Even NES beat em ups like Battletoads is better.
>Power Up
>Power Up
>AWOOOOOOO!
None of them played it back then thats why they say bad things. They had sonic and sportsball games cuz their parents made sure they didnt play anything violent etc. now they larp like they did because they're as fake as pamela andersons breasts.
zoomer here
i love altered beast. probably would've been lame if it was your own genesis game though
I lieked it on Megadrive, nice for a packin game.
Reason to believe that people who worked at Sega don't even like that game.
Is this game hated?
I played it on Genesis a while back and thought it was cool. Definitely short and arcade-style, but the simplicity of the combat was nice
Was always impressed by this game always respected it. Some things didn't like as much kind of thought they sucked, but always thought well it must be something I'm doing wrong. if it was the only game you had there's no reason not keep playing. A marginal classic in some respects. Truly believe that it's some of the people who worked at Sega who do not like that game. ( Sort of Not opinion. )
It's one of those internet memes that gets popular. Hating Altered Beast is like the Castlevania 2 how was I supposed to know to kneel meme. Or even the pineapple on pizza is gross meme. The internet is full of easily influenced morons who need to be told what to think.
Altered beast is awesome! Don't listen to tophatgaming he's married to a turbo b***h. Altered beast is orinal as frick! Controls are tight! And graphics are beautiful. Sound is music is iconic.