Altered Beast CD

SEGA/NEC Avenue - 1989 - Japan
CD-ROM

My journey to acquire Altered Beast CD was a lethargic one. After all, phrases like "wasted opportunity" are constantly tossed around in discussions of the title. I'd even been told the game freezes mid-level in order to load from the CD. I already owned the cart version, so CD seemed pretty superfluous to me. It wasn't until brother IvaNEC brought word the CD wasn't a total waste after all that I even considered picking it up. While there's no question Altered Beast CD could have been much more than it turned out to be, it is more fleshed out than its cartridge counterpart and I think I like it just a little bit more.

It's also a fair bit easier, which may appeal to players who dislike the cart based on the high difficulty level. The Duo port of Altered Beast has long been chastised for its difficulty and lack of parallax. Well, the difficulty level here isn't really all that bad and I can't help but point out the arcade original didn't have any parallax either. In many ways, the Duo port is a closer match to the arcade than the Genesis version.

It really is strange Altered Beast CD doesn't feature redbook audio for the stage themes, although there are hints at what could have been in the "Story" cinema, title screen, and the between-levels jingle. Despite the lack of a complete, proper CD soundtrack, those chiptunes still sound pretty damn good. Sound effects got an overhaul, however, and the game now features hearty cracks and booms as you obliterate rocks and headstones, not to mention the voices which were missing from the cartridge are back.

Graphically the game has been altered slightly from the cart with several background palette swaps and a little art revision in stage 1. I believe the changes were made to make the game appear a little more similar to the arcade, but it's curious they went to the trouble for such minor tweaks. As for the game halting to load mid-level, well, it's safe to say I didn't even notice it at first. The scrolling does halt periodically anyway when the game is waiting for you to dispatch an enemy or obstacle, the only difference here is your inability to move for two seconds. Not quite the game wrecking flaw people make it out to be, the pauses are integrated into the levels well enough to be largely unnoticeable.

Alterations include changes in sky and background tree color.

The biggest difference, and indeed the most consequential, between the CD version and its cartridge counterpart lies in how your character handles damage. Where the cart will have you bouncing helplessly back and forth as your life drains away, the CD actually adds a second or two of invincibility allowing you to regain your composure and (hopefully) prevent unnecessary loss of life.

Altered Beast CD really is a superb port of the arcade classic, and if it wasn't for the existence of the cartridge for comparison, I think CD would probably be a little more highly regarded. Altered Beast on the Duo is an extremely solid product in either iteration, impressive even. Still, I'd unquestionably recommend CD first to players looking to give the game a try as only warriors as hardy as the Duomazov clan stand a chance of making headway with the cart.

It's worthy of note that Altered Beast CD requires the BIOS of the Japanese-only System Card 1.0 in order to play properly. The good news is System 1.0 shouldn't run you too much. It's also possible to play the game without issue using a flash cart "pretending" to be a System 1 card.

Altered Beast CD

~ ALTERED BEAST ~

Sega / NEC Avenue

CD-ROM

1989

Well, this is a shame.

You'd think that a CD rendition of Altered Beast would feature red book music; but as it turns out, the chip tunes perform double duty. And they certainly sound great and all, but it would've been awfully cool to hear AB's compositions treated with vintage PCE CD instrumentation. Sadly, we'll never be granted that opportunity; but NEC Avenue did give us "explosive" sound effects for the occasions where we bust up the odd foreground rock or gravestone. Also, and probably more importantly, this version delivers voices--"Rise from your grave," "Power up," "Welcome to your doom," that sort of stuff--as well as a variety of howls and roars during the beast transformation scenes.

All right, so dreams of red book audio fell by the wayside; next on the "CD version" checklist is cinemas. And yeah, you can select a "STORY" option and sit through a cinematic sequence that relays the Altered Beast tale (voice in Japanese, of course) and displays a bizarre string of images, some of which were lifted from the game's packaging while others were cheap borrowings from the game itself, including exciting things like a close-up title screen portion and an odd boss monster collage. It's weird stuff, and it's all you'll get cinematically; there's no cool new between-stage or ending stuff.

There are some very minor in-game graphical amendments to check out, the most noticeable of which are color swaps in a couple levels. PCE AB's colors are very nice anyway, and while I don't mind the substitutions at all, they don't represent much of a reach on the part of the designers, who might as well have redecorated some more while they were at it.

The adventure itself is less challenging here than it is on card, but don't expect to roll through this if you struggle with the chip version. The gameplay is still rough, but the bosses can't take quite as much of a beating. You can adjust the difficulty to "Hard" if you want to, but the switch didn't make much of a difference to me: some spots contain more (and more-aggressive) enemies, most noticeably later in the game, but this is hardly a big deal if you can reach the end of the journey in the first place.

Speaking simply as a judge of the game itself and disregarding all other circumstances, I like CD Altered Beast a lot. After all, it's a heck of a lot like the HuCard, which I loved in the first place. But I must say it seems like a pretty pointless effort. Why no red book music? Why not more visual changes, more cinemas? This could've, should've, been a very cool and worthwhile project instead of an endeavor now almost universally mocked.