Altered Beast PCE vs Megadrive/Genesis

[WoodyXP]

Here's my breakdown:

1. Megadrive version plays the best, but grafx aren't up to par with the other two.

2. HuCard - Hard as hell.. graphics are more crisp, colorful and have better animations than Megadrive.
                 Digitized voices are muted for the most part, save for your dying scream.

3. CD-ROM2 - A little less difficult, looks a tad better than HuCard in some areas, worse in others.
                   The game has to pause periodically to load more of the game(during play) and can
                   get annoying.  Digitized voices are all there.. but BGM is same as the HuCard.

There you have it.

[Spector]

So for the exclusively hucard players like myself (which of course are the true PC Engine games), how do you get past the face spitting monster at the end of stage one?

[nat]

So for the exclusively hucard players like myself (which of course are the true PC Engine games), how do you get past the face spitting monster at the end of stage one?

If you're already having trouble and you aren't even out of stage 1, there isn't much hope for you and this game.

Seriously, though, you just need to fly back and forth from the left side of the screen straight into the monster as the werewolf using your fly-kick. Watch the pattern that he throws the heads and develop a system to time your fly-kick so that you never land where a head is falling. If there are heads in your way as you fly, it's no big deal since you will obliterate them as you fly by. Once you get it down, it is really very simple, and you should be able to pass him without losing a single life bar.

[Black Tiger]

Here's my breakdown:

1. Megadrive version plays the best, but grafx aren't up to par with the other two.

2. HuCard - Hard as hell.. graphics are more crisp, colorful and have better animations than Megadrive.
                 Digitized voices are muted for the most part, save for your dying scream.

3. CD-ROM2 - A little less difficult, looks a tad better than HuCard in some areas, worse in others.
                   The game has to pause periodically to load more of the game(during play) and can
                   get annoying.  Digitized voices are all there.. but BGM is same as the HuCard.

There you have it.

The Megadrive version also has a bunch of voices, debug mode and a jump button. It also has exclusive parallax scrolling. If you're the kinda person who judges graphics by stuff like that instead of the actual graphics, then the MD version is easily the best overall.

Either way, the graphics are pretty much even overall between the three versions. No version is a big leap over the others.

[nat]

Personally, I prefer pressing "UP" for jumping in Altered Beast. It gives it more of an arcade/beat 'em up feel to it. Having an actual jump button is just.... wrong.

[Keranu]

I think I would like pressing up the jump more if I was using a joystick. I usually don't mind pressing up the jump in games anyways, but the controls in the PCE Altered Beast for jumping feel really stiff. I think that's the main reason why the game is harder for some people.

[WoodyXP]

If you're already having trouble and you aren't even out of stage 1, there isn't much hope for you and this game.

Seriously, though, you just need to fly back and forth from the left side of the screen straight into the monster as the werewolf using your fly-kick. Watch the pattern that he throws the heads and develop a system to time your fly-kick so that you never land where a head is falling. If there are heads in your way as you fly, it's no big deal since you will obliterate them as you fly by. Once you get it down, it is really very simple, and you should be able to pass him without losing a single life bar.

Word.. I do sort of the same thing.  I like to stand back at the left side for as long as I can, shooting fire balls.  Just as the head is about to drop on top of me
I'll jump forward with the fly kick and hit the tree.. then fly kick back and repeat. 

[Black Tiger]

I think I would like pressing up the jump more if I was using a joystick. I usually don't mind pressing up the jump in games anyways, but the controls in the PCE Altered Beast for jumping feel really stiff. I think that's the main reason why the game is harder for some people.

I think that Altered Beast PCE would be a lot harder to control jumping wise if SFII hadn't become such a big hit.

[Keranu]

I think I would like pressing up the jump more if I was using a joystick. I usually don't mind pressing up the jump in games anyways, but the controls in the PCE Altered Beast for jumping feel really stiff. I think that's the main reason why the game is harder for some people.

I think that Altered Beast PCE would be a lot harder to control jumping wise if SFII hadn't become such a big hit.

Good point .

[Turbo D]

I think that Altered Beast PCE would be a lot easier to control jumping wise if people weren't spoiled with a jumping button on smb and other such nes games.

[Michael Helgeson]

I think whiney butt people who need a jump button should just take a ave pad 3 and cut some traces,and mod it so button 3 works as directional button up.

[nat]

I think whiney butt people who need a jump button should just take a ave pad 3 and cut some traces,and mod it so button 3 works as directional button up.

There ya go! Michael's got the idea.

[Joe Redifer]

Jump buttons are f*cking stupid.  Only a god damned motherf*cker would like a jump button.  Seriously, a jump button?  Please.  The jump button totally destroyed Legendary Axe 1 and 2.  And Shinobi.  f*ck that.  Ghouls 'n Ghosts was also super f*cktastic with its jump button.  Why does anyone need a jump button when we have the up direction to press?  That's why Atari 2600 controls ruled.  Just imagine how much better Legendary Axe 1, 2, Shinobi, Ghouls 'n Ghosts and hundreds of other games would play with an Atari Joystick.  The Turbo is a better system than the Genesis because it has FEWER BUTTONS!  Yeah.  I can rationalize any weakness into a strength if you give me the chance.  Do not underestimate my fanboyism.

Seriously though, I think the Genesis version of Altered Beast wins in the backgrounds department (with the exception of them not becoming black and white during boss fights), and the PCE Altered Beast wins in the sprites department.

[awack]

I think the genesis version is definitely the better game, with better sound and gameplay, the pc engine version is a bit to difficult and it takes forever to regain control after being hit.

I do like the overall presentation in the pc engine game better though, such as a more colorfull, less washed out look than the genesis game, better or more animations, large breakable objects in a few of the levels, the boss scaling up in size before turning into a beast and a cooler looking effect when you turn from a beast back to your human form at the end of each level.

The genesis version has parallax scrolling and some of the art work is better.

genesis                                     pc engine

[Turbo D]

I like the detail in the pc engine one better. In the Genesis version the wolves look like retarded cows, lol. I know that people are ranting about parallax and such, but that was just added to make the game look like it could compete against the pc engine and arcade. If you think about it, that parallax isn't even supposed to be there.