Altered Beast

Altered Beast is the game that sold the Mega Drive. Not because it was a masterpiece — it wasn't — but because it was bundled in the box and that digitized phrase, "Rise from your grave!", came from TV speakers like a promise: this console is different. A Roman centurion resurrected by Zeus collected power spheres to transform into werewolf, dragon, bear and tiger. Gameplay was stiff and repetitive, levels short, difficulty artificial. But in 1988, when players turned on the Mega Drive for the first time, those transformations with massive sprites and that sampled voice were pure next-gen magic. Sega replaced it with Sonic in 1991 — the right call — but Altered Beast remains an entire generation's gateway into the 16-bit era.