Jūōki-Altered Beast-Home Ports

Released in arcades in 1988, Jūōki (Altered Beast)  was one of the most famous Sega arcade games from the 1980s. Several ports of the game made it home. Japan Game Cave will take a look at a few of these ports and the main differences between each of them.








The most famous port in the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis port. As a pack-in game for the U.S. Genesis, the game is very cheap and affordable in this part of the world today. As a flagship title for the brand-new 16-bit console. The 16-bit port really showed off the power of Sega's new console. Sprites are quite large and detailed, and the game looks pretty close the arcade original. Sound is very good on the Mega Drive, contained voice samples just like the arcade original. "Rise from your grave" and "welcome to your doom" are some of the most famous voice samples in the game. The music is great sounding on the Mega Drive as well. Despite being beloved by so many, I find the Mega Drive/Genesis controller awkward and bulky, and I would recommend using a six-button controller if you are like me and find the three-button bulky. You won't be able to use any of the extra buttons on this game, but the six-button is far more enjoyable to use as it is lighter and less bulky. Easily the best home port.

As a child, I played the Sega Master System version of the game. This was the version of the game that I played first and is therefore quite nostalgic to me. If you have played the 16-bit version of the game, you might find the 8-bit version quite primitive. However, I still find the game quite enjoyable.

It looks great for an 8-bit game, and the sound is memorable, despite using the fairly weak SMS sound-chip. Quite a few people are critical of the game on Sega's 8-bit hardware due its jerky frame-rate and sometimes unresponsive controls. Also, the cave level has been omitted. Not a terrible port, but not nearly as good as the Genesis/Megadrive. The game was not released in its home country, likely due to the fading popularity of the Mark III (Japanese SMS) in its home country.


In addition to Sega ports, the game would also find its way onto the Nintendo Famicom in Japan only. The Famicom version is usually written off as an also-ran. Released by Asmik (famous for Sega ports), the game looks fairly bland even for a Famicom game. Sprites are very tiny, and the game has some very loud purple and green colours. Given the technical limitations of the Famicom, it really doesn't look that bad. Also, many have argued that this version plays and runs more smoothly than the SMS version. The game is quite different from other ports. It features 3 new beasts and levels, a different ending, and a very different look and feel.

I would argue that the Famicom port should be treated as an entirely different re-imaginging. Not terrible, but not even close to the original. On a positive note, the box art is amazing and probably one of the cheapest looking Famicom box designs (in the best possible way).

Another 8-bit port of the game (arguably 8-bit) would be released for the PC Engine. In fact, two versions of the game would be released for the PC Engine in Japan. The first would be released on Hu-Card and the second for NEC's new CD-ROM2 add-on. There are not many differences between each version of the game. Not a bad port, but it does make quite a few changes.

The PC Engine port sits somewhere between the SMS and Mega Drive version. Sprites and backgrounds are far-less detailed than the Mega Drive. The HuCard version omits the sampled voices, but the CD version brings back the samples. Slight colour palette differences are some other minor differences between the CD and HuCard. As a bonus, the CD version has two difficulties. This is great, as many have complained how hard the HuCard release is. Otherwise, the two ports are almost identical. For the CD version, you will need the 1.0 system card. This ancient system card is quite hard to find nowadays, and the game will freeze or lock-up without this card. As a result, many people avoid the CD version of the game.