Altered Beast

A mediocre arcade to begin with that only came to some fame as a launch title for the Sega Megadrive / Genesis. The C64 conversion is certainly better than some other conversions but gameplay is repetitive and boring, not helped by the indistinct spites and slowdown.

Another terrible arcade conversion. Graphics are generally poor with terrible animation and fuzzy, indistinct sprites against some decent backgrounds. But its the sheer lack of playability that lets this down, awful collision detection and the absolute glacial pace make this one to most certainly AVOID!

A very lazy and uninspiring conversion of a somewhat mediocre arcade game. Some credit is due for making the backgrounds somewhat recognisable from the arcade, however the sprites are very blocky and animate poorly, plus the overall pace of the game is slow and mundane. The complete lack of in-game music is puzzling too, especially when you consider that the SID music files are on the game disk! What really annoyed me most with this conversion though was that collecting the orbs doesn't make you stronger - you remain a 'normal human' until you change into a beast, but as mentioned by another reviewer, all the beasts only get one attack, not two!! Unless you're a diehard fan of the arcade, best to avoid this conversion.

A bit of a mixed bag... Graphics are uneven, very blocky and lo-res but at the same time backgrounds and some animations are pretty faithful to the arcade. Playability it's often mediocre, which makes the game harder than it should be. Still, it has a certain charm to it which I can't fully explain. Playing it with a life cheat makes it way more enjoyable.

Too slow and the collision detection is variable to say the least. There's a half (third) decent game to be had if you can get over the disappointment of the conversion itself but nothing to get the pulse racing. 5 out of 10.

Altered Beast C64 Intro:
youtube.com/watch?v=Y2p0ZyNox54

Not a disaster, but not good either. The graphics look like badly digitized versions of the arcade original. The pace is slow, unable to build excitement. The collision detection is unpredictable, which is a no-no for a beat-em-up. The end-of-level bosses are erratic. Worst of all, there is no in-game music. Why? There's three solid tunes included in the SID file. All in all, if you had bought the game back in the day, you wouldn't feel too ripped off, but you wouldn't feel too happy either.

Not bad backgrounds, but ugly main sprites. Plays way too slow also.

Something likeable about this one, but it's really pulled down a few notches by whacked out collision detection. And slow! Sometimes turning around and moving was like driving an oil tanker...

Frustrating tat and horrible to look at. The Commodore 64 has much better games of it's kind. Get the Megadrive version.

A POOR version of the arcade game.

Decent backgrounds but awful, grany sprites and bad collisions/gameplay. I can't believe how many wolves I had to wait for transforming! Mark Jones will make better on near-masterpieces as Outrun Europe and Atomic Robokid, but tragically this conversion is a cruel joke..

I downloaded the arcade version for the XBOX 360, its a good game.

A POOR version of the arcade game. Especially when compared to other formats like the PC Engine and Megadrive versions. Dire graphics and gameplay. 3/10

I think I almost fell asleep playing this one...

Have played this for the C64 but the 16-bit versions are better obviously

A good game in it's own right

This is a fairly mundane port of a fairly mundane arcade game, but to be fair, when it came out it was fairly unique for a C64 game. Any console port far outshines this, though... You don't 'power up' in this version, you stay as the skinny human until you turn into a beast - and then, you only get one attack, not two (which makes the first boss really dumb as you only get the dashing attack, no fireballs! That's a critical mistake and rather ruins things.

I can remember looking forward to the Commodore 64 version after playing it in the arcades. Was I little disappointed as the graphics were not all that. Game play was superb though. ukquotes.co.uk

The commy 64 done a surprisingly good conversion of this. There were some nicely drawn backgrounds although sprites were a little garish in places. But gameplay is what matters and it's was fun on your own or with a friend. Good all rounder.

I didn't like the game much, but it was cool to change into ass-kicking animals!

I find this version better than Amiga/ST versions. Graphics are really faithfull to the arcade, and the scroll and movements are much better and smoother than jerky 16 bits versions.

The Amiga version is basically an st game.

Poor conversion of a great coin-op machine. C64 can do better than this. Get Amiga version instead!

The graphics on this game were way too blocky, but it did manage to recreate the feel of the arcade game really well, especially with the oversized enemies, so once you got past the visual, s you had a decent coin op conversion.

This is dire. It seems as though the graphics were designed to look good in the screenshots in magazines and adverts, but the designer didn't give a toss about how the looked when you actually play the game.

Virtually unplayable, this is a lazy and incompetent conversion. Every other version of this game that I've played, from the Spectrum thru to the PC Engine has a far superior conversion.

I liked the arcade coin-up Altered Beast, but C64 conversion is not so good. Except music. Music is EXCELLENT!

A good conversion from the graphic point of view... (but the original wasn't that good... ) ruined by a senseless error: in the coin op you couldn't fight the bosses if you didn't reach the beast transformation, ont the 64 it can happen!
Big mistake!

Unbelievably sloppy, choppy and crappy conversion of a decent arcade game. This is so slow and jerky it's virtually unplayable without trainer and that's not good.

I loved the arcade, but this conversion is awful: bad graphics (C64 can do better!), nearly no sound, low playability and neverending loadings. If you really want to enjoy Altered Beast, then play it with MAME.

Really nice coin-up conversion

Quite fun but a bit dizzy graphics. Ok to play.

Great conversion by activision. Big GFX and a lot of playability. Even better than mastersystem game.

One of activisions better conversions. Good graphics and reasonable gameplay. Long term interest not guaranteed though. 6/10

Great C64 conversion of an unusual arcade game.. Very Playable...

I Rate 78/100

When I first got this I thought "kewl, people with a Sega have to pay for it and I'm getting it for free". Well, it turned out to be pretty crappy and way to easy.

Not one of my favourites by a long chalk, but solid I guess...

I loved this one! I also played it once on a Sega 16bit. I was blown away by those graphics. Darn good game!

Nearly as good as the arcade version, really!

Awesome arcade conversion!