Altered Beast: An Old-School Trip to the Underworld

It's time for some classic beat-em-up action!  Altered Beast was originally an arcade game back in 1988, and was later ported to consoles.  In this game, you play as a Roman Centurion who is resurrected by Zeus in order to save Zeus' daughter Athena from an evil god named Neff.  How's that for a mish-mash of mythology?

Anyway, as you side-scroll your way through the five levels in the game (yes, it's pretty short), you can obtain power-ups which cause the Centurion to "power up" as the in-game voice states (every single time you pick one up, it's actually pretty funny to hear).  After collecting three power-ups, the Centurion will transform into a level-specific beast, such as a werewolf or a bear.

During your quest to save Athena, you'll visit locations such as the graveyard where your character is resurrected, the underworld, and the so-called Cavern of Souls.  In the graveyard you'll encounter flying demons, along with hordes of (surprise, surprise) zombies.  The zombies are actually pretty entertaining; some of them will burst out of their graves in order to attack you, and a well-aimed punch can knock off their head.  There's also a variation of this enemy that walks around holding it's disembodied head in one hand.

A detailed background scrolls by as you make your way to face the boss, containing mass amounts of gravestones.  However, the whole level is set in broad daylight.  Why would the developers go through all the trouble to make a bad-ass graveyard, and not set it at night?

The underworld level is a step in the right direction, given that it's set in a dark cavern that appears to stretch out to infinity.  Here you'll be fighting giant leeches that love to latch onto your character's head and drain his health.

This isn't going to end well.

Other enemies you'll frequently run into here are large snakes that burst from the ceiling and floor of the cavern, which can be decapitated with a well-timed punch or kick.

I mentioned the Cavern of Souls level earlier, mainly because with a name like that it should be a pretty awesome level right?  Unfortunately it's not, the level is a bland-looking cave where you fight giant ants and snails.  Way to go Sega.

Yea...scary stuff....I guess...

The end of each level features a showdown with Neff, who transforms into various monstrosities.  Notable among these are his demon form, where he will continually tear off his head and throw it at you, while a new head grows back in its place.  He will also turn into a plant-based creature which proceeds to shoot out damage-causing eyeballs.

Altered Beast is a fairly short game that can be completed in twenty minutes or so.  It's fun to play co-op with a friend, but there isn't too much replay factor due to lack of depth (it is an arcade port after all).  Have you guys had a chance to play Altered Beast, and journey through the (mostly) hellish locations?

Unexplained Strangeness in Bully

Have you ever come across a character in a game whose back-story isn't explained, despite the fact that we know the back-story could be awesome, even to the point of rivaling the main storyline?  It's annoying that game developers sometimes leave interesting stories out of our games, so that we may only speculate in forums or (shudder) fan fiction.  But as with all media, the authors can't explain everything or the games/movies/books would never be released.  In this article I'm going to be looking at some of the weird things in Rockstar's Bully game that have unfortunately gone unexplained.

But wait a second, Bully?  A game about a kid taking over a private school?  You might be thinking that other than the exaggerated high-school setting, there's nothing too interesting happening in the background.  But keep in mind that this is a Rockstar game, remember all the crazy things you heard on the car radios in the Grand Theft Auto games?  Not to mention the supposed Bigfoot sightings in GTA San Andreas.  Bully surprisingly contains some aspects from the science fiction and horror genres.

The presence of aliens is strongly implied in the game.  One of the missions in Bully has you collecting transistor radios for a hobo camped out next to the school.  Once you've given all the radios to the hobo, he builds some kind of device, and then is promptly pulled into the sky by a huge tractor beam, never to be seen again.

Beam me up Jimmy!

That's not all the alien evidence either.  Later on in the game you get access to the nearby asylum, where you discover more hints.  In one room is a portrait of a scientist standing next to what looks like a little alien:

Like all conspiracy theories involving aliens, low quality photos are to be expected.

Further exploration takes you to a room with X-ray images hung on a wall.   Some of these images appear to show an alien's head.

I don't know about you, but when I was playing through Bully I definitely wanted to learn more about the alien presence in the little town this game is set in, it seemed more interesting than the game's plot of taking over the school.

Earlier I also mentioned horror aspects in Bully.  It is hinted that there is a werewolf inhabiting the area.  In the same X-ray room mentioned above, there are also an X-ray showing what appears to be a wolf-ish head on a human body.  Nearby in the asylum is an area that looks to have once been barricaded off.  When you come across this area, the barricades have long since been violently destroyed, giving the appearance that something has broken out of the asylum.  Another fun thing Rockstar added to this game is a werewolf mask that you can equip.  The interesting part is that the mask has a facial scar similar to that of the game's main antagonist Gary (coincidence?).  Add to that the occasional howling sounds that can be heard at night, and you have one fun side-story that the developers have left mostly to our imaginations.

 This concludes my look at some interesting story possibilities in Bully that have yet to be explored in depth.  What kind of unexplained game stories have you guys come across?