Power-Up #2: Power-Up Orbs (Altered Beast)

Rise from your grave and battle the undead legions commanded by Neff the Demon God. Altered Beast launched with the Sega Genesis as the pack-in, making it many people's introduction to the 16-bit era. Sega welcomed gamers to the next level by turning them into four animals.



Purpose: While most power-ups are optional, the creatively titled Power-Up Orb is required in order to advance through Altered Beast. The player starts out as a weak human in each stage. He grows a little bit larger and more powerful with each floating orb he snags, until finally he turns into one of four animals.

Legacy: For years it looked like our nameless hero had kicked his last blue wolf. But just when all hope was lost, he, along with the Power-Up Orb, returned in Guardian of the Realms for the Game Boy Advance. Unfortunately, the floating orbs were ditched in Project Altered Beast, the ill-conceived PlayStation 2 reboot.

In Real Life: You would hope that it would be our biggest, bravest soldiers who wanted to be first in line to become a real life animal. Sadly, I suspect the first volunteers would come from the furry community and have very little interest in protecting the world from mythological gods and monsters. Just call it a hunch.