Play Altered Beast (Mega-Tech) Online

Altered Beast is a 1988 arcade game by Sega, playable through MAME 0.243. It belongs to that era of side-scrolling brawlers where simple concepts and chunky sprites ruled the cabinet. You play a resurrected Roman centurion, brought back by Zeus to rescue his daughter Athena from the underworld god Neff.

You control the warrior, moving screen by screen through a linear path, punching and kicking zombies, bats, and other mythological creatures. Defeated enemies sometimes drop glowing orbs; collecting three transforms you into a powerful beast like a werewolf, dragon, or bear, each with a unique screen-clearing attack. The main objective is straightforward: fight to the end of each stage and defeat the boss. The pacing is brisk, and the difficulty can feel cheap with enemy attacks coming from off-screen. It feels like a short, repetitive, but oddly satisfying burst of arcade-era muscle memory.