Altered Beast: Guardian Realms
- January 09, 2003 00:00 AM PST
An old Sega �classic� rises from its grave and transforms into a bigger, longer, all-new punch-kick-turn-into-monster-a-thon.
Man becomes bigger man. Bigger man becomes biggest man. Biggest man becomes monster that shoots magic balls, performs spin attacks, and defeats weird, creepy boss�before reverting to man once more. Altered Beast: Guardian Realms succeeds marvelously in crafting a wholly faithful sequel to the �classic� arcade and Sega Genesis game right down to the challenge, pacing, graphical style, and weird Zardoz-meets-Clash of the Titans soundtrack. It even goes the extra mile with three times as many levels (15 as opposed to the original�s five) and a dozen new �evolving� transformations.Unfortunately, for all the effort at mimicry, the gameplay at the Beast�s heart doesn�t quite withstand the test of time. Only those with the Sega Nostalgia Gene spliced into their DNA will be able to fathom why Altered Beast, with its stupid-simple, ultra-repetitive 2D side-scrolling punch/kick/repeat gameplay, was ever popular in the first place.
