THE MAKING OF: ALTERED BEAST
» [Arcade] Neff’s final boss form is one angry rhino…
Drive owner in the West probably played the conversion at some point. “As Altered Beast was not so popular in Japan I was really surprised with the high popularity in the Western market,” admits Uchida. “I’m really proud that people still remember and play my game. I was told by my boss ‘you are already a legend!’ the other day, but I think of myself as still [relatively not well-known] in this industry.”
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e were keen to know if Uchida had been involved with the Mega Drive and Master System conversions as well. “I didn’t belong to the conversion team so I only gave some advice,” he replies. “However, as the Mega Drive was based on System 16 (the arcade board used for Altered Beast and Golden Axe ), the game was well reproduced and I didn’t have any worry for the Mega Drive conversion. I had hoped to bring back
the actions dropped because of the button trouble, but gave up again as the Mega Drive also didn’t have pressure-sensitive device and the development schedule was tight.” “When I heard that Altered Beast would be bundled with all the Sega Genesis packages in North America I had no idea what to expect,” Uchida recalls. “I was working in Japan and heard about it there. I just said ‘that’s terrific, I can’t wait to see it’. But we never saw the bundle in Japan. I had to go to the US about three years later and I heard about it again. So I said ‘this time I’ll definitely go to a store’. But I couldn’t find it anywhere. There was nothing but the Sonic The Hedgehog bundle available! So I was never able to see it. That’s my only regret about the game…” Along with the Mega Drive conversion, Altered Beast became a much-ported Sega arcade title – although with varying results – with Activision taking on the European conversions for the Amiga, C64, Spectrum
AMSTRAD CPC
AMIGA
ATARI ST
Q While it manages to have a
Q Unlike Virgin’s impressive Amiga
few more enemies on-screen than the C64 version, as well as attempting to replicate some of the more subtle graphical effects, the Amstrad port is also horribly slow to the point of being almost unplayable. However there is at least a decent version of the ingame tune, although it’s not up to par with the Spectrum conversion.
port of Golden Axe, Activision’s conversion of Altered Beast seems to be modelled on the Atari ST version, and unfortunately both ports are incredibly sluggish to play with dodgy hit detection. It’s a shame as it certainly looks the part, although like the Famicom version a large portion of the screen is taken up by a status bar.
Q The Atari ST conversion of Altered Beast is pretty disappointing. It certainly looks nice with very impressive visuals, but it’s extremely slow to play, lacking the pace of the original arcade game. It also loses much of the screen to a huge status bar that makes the playing area feel constricted. Not terrible by any means, but disappointing all the same.
» As was often the case, the Japanese Mega Drive case looked far cooler.
» [GBA] Altered Beast: Guardians Of The Realms updated the graphics but the scrolling action remained very similar to the first game.
and other home computer formats. Uchida continued to work on Sega coin-op releases, following Altered Beast with Golden Axe, Alien Storm and Die Hard Arcade, among others. Although Altered Beast never received an arcade sequel, it did spawn a couple of later spin-offs – Altered Beast: Guardian Of The Realms on Game Boy Advance in 2002, and Project: Altered Beast on PlayStation 2 in 2005, which Uchida also advised on. Guardians Of The Realms revived the traditional side-scrolling beat-’em-up mechanic with rendered graphics and additional animal forms to transform into, including a snake, shark, scorpion and eagle. Project: Altered Beast was a radical overhaul closer in feel to Devil May Cry or Resident Evil, with a much darker tone and ramped-up gore and violence that set it apart from the original arcade game. “We really couldn’t steer away from the violence aspect,” comments Uchida. “The American marketing side was cheering us on, so we did it as best we could. In the old version, you could only transform into a predetermined beast, but this time [we had] a werewolf, merman, wendigo (ice giant), galuda (bird man) and a dragon.” Receiving mixed reviews, mainly criticising its ungainly 3D camera and murky graphics, the game was only released in Japan and Europe. On a more positive note, Neff, in his ultimate Rhino boss form, recently made an appearance in the videogame baddies’ rehabilitation meeting in the Disney movie Wreck-It Ralph, alongside Clyde, Bowser and Dr Robotnik. Uchida now manages Sega’s Shanghai studio, which most recently worked on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade version of Nights Into Dreams. However, he is still amazed by the sustained popularity that surrounds his old-school arcade titles. “When I occasionally visit videogame arcades in the US, I still see people playing my Altered Beast and Golden Axe games,” he comments. “It proves to me that, if the game is good, people will still pay good money to play it. And it makes me really happy.”
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