Altered Beast

Altered Beast is a legendary side-scrolling beat 'em up set in Ancient Greece, where a fallen centurion is resurrected from the grave by Zeus. Your mission is to rescue Zeus's daughter, Athena, from the demonic god Neff. The core mechanic involves collecting spirit balls dropped by defeated white wolves, which cause your character to undergo dramatic physical transformations. After three power-ups, you morph into powerful creatures—such as a Werewolf, Weretiger, or Golden Bear—each possessing unique elemental attacks and supernatural strength to defeat the grotesque bosses guarding each of the five rounds.

Megadrive

Released in 1988 as the flagship pack-in title for the console's launch, the Mega Drive version is arguably the most famous home port. It served as a powerful demonstration of the system's "16-Bit" capabilities, bringing a near-arcade-perfect experience into living rooms for the first time. The game famously includes the deep, digitized voice commands "Rise from your grave!" and "Power up!", which were revolutionary features for a home console at the time.
While there are minor graphical differences—such as a slightly smaller color palette and simplified background layers compared to the System 16 arcade board—it retains all five stages and every beast transformation. The sprites are large, the gameplay is fast, and the iconic soundtrack is faithfully reproduced using the console's FM synthesis. For an entire generation of gamers, this version was their introduction to the Sega ecosystem, cementing the game's status as a quintessential 16-bit classic and a milestone in gaming history.