12 Most Disturbing Gaming Boss Battles Of All Time

Altered Beast is another Mega Drive classic, originally hitting arcades back in 1988. It’s the tale of a mysterious (and dead) Centurion, brought back to life by Zeus. Why? To rescue the god of lightning and/or righteous beards’ daughter, that’s why. Athena has been kidnapped by Neff, god of the underworld, a situation nobody's happy about.

While he was at it, Zeus saw fit to imbue our hero (/heroes, if you’re playing in co-op mode) with superhuman powers. Collecting power-ups will increase their muscle mass and strength (in an unintentionally funny Popeye-esque animation). Enough of these mysterious orbs will allow the player character to transform entirely, hence the game’s name.

This transformation will be different in each level, beginning with a werewolf form in the opening crypt stage. At the end of each level, Neff appears to oppose you in a different form himself, the first of which being particularly unsettling: Aggar, a sort of troll comprised of dead bodies. Aggar’s turn-ons include fine wine, walks on the beach and throwing endless shrieking heads at the player like angry projectiles. It's a huge, immobile target, but those projectiles can be very damaging if the player doesn't utilize their character's agility to the fullest.