Altered Beast was the original pack-in for the SEGA Genesis.

Not the best one. That title belongs to Sonic 2.

Still, it was a smart choice. It showed, immediately, what 16-bit meant. More colours. Bigger sprites. Layered, moody backgrounds. Things the NES simply could not do.

This mattered in 1989. A lot of people genuinely thought the NES was the end of the road. Parents assumed one console would last a childhood. And to be fair, a 6-year-old could live inside Super Mario Bros forever.

But older kids wanted attitude. Something louder. Stranger. More aggressive.

Altered Beast delivered that. A beat ’em up where you claw your way out of the grave and transform into monsters to wreck everything on screen.

Yes, it can feel slow. Yes, the pacing is uneven.

But at launch, it looked brutal, alien, and powerful. And that was the point.