Battle Beast is a side-scrolling fighting game

Fighting game

Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...

 released for the PC

Personal computer

A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

 in 1995. In the style of Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat (series)

Mortal Kombat, commonly abbreviated MK, is a science fantasy series of fighting games created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. The first four renditions and their updates were developed by Midway Games and initially released on arcade machines. The arcade titles were later picked up by Acclaim...

or Street Fighter

Street Fighter

, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a series of Fighting Games developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own unique fighting style, against one another...

, a player can play against another human opponent or computer-controlled

Non-player character

A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...

 opponents in different levels using hand-to-hand combat

Hand to hand combat

Hand-to-hand combat is a lethal or nonlethal physical confrontation between two or more persons at very short range that does not involve the use of firearms or other distance weapons...

, special moves and weapons to defeat each other. A distinct feature in Battle Beast is the use of animals, which can transform into large robotic machines to battle one another. Players can select 6 different animals, which start off as cutesy-looking pets but all transform into large robots to fight, each animal has its own specific special combat techniques, weapons and attributes.

Players can fight on various levels in the single player mode as they advance through "sewers" to reach the final boss, a large Toad (Toadman), and complete the game. There are also several mini-games mixed in between the fights such as races through mazes and secret bonus rooms to collect upgrades and weapons.

Multiplayer can be direct human to human combat, with two players battling each other on the same computer or across a LAN

Län

Län and lääni refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Finland. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010....

 network or the internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

. Players can also battle in a cooperative mode together, where two players can progress through the single player levels together.

Gameplay

The game's main menu describes in the single player mode, the evil Toadman's latest crimes committed by his henchmen, upon unnamed cities. The Toadman begins to infest cities with his swarms of toads that ravage havoc upon the inhabitants. The storyline is introduced to the character with very comical and humorous cartoon clips, set in cities, that usually end with someone being eaten by the toads.

The player starts by choosing a "Battle Beast" and travels through sewers, fighting other Battle Beasts, which can be controlled by the computer, or another human player in the head-to-head versus mode. After the travels to each different battle ground in the unnamed city, via the sewers; they are brought to a final level where they face the Toadman himself. Once the Toadman is defeated the player wins the game.

Game play revolves around two combatants battling it out on varied levels. Each combatant can change from animal form to Battle Beast form at any time during the battle. Powerful special moves and combinations can be performed by pressing several keys in sequence, much like other various fighting games. While players start off as animals and in the animal form players can pick up various powerups and items, most of the fighting is done in the "Battle Beast" form . Each level contains some hazards and special traps, and can also contain secret entrances and passages the player can enter which will lead them to "powerup" rooms which give them weapons or a maze

Maze

A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...

 to find a special item. Some items spawned during levels can be helpful, while others damage players.

Windows 95

Battle Beast was one of the first PC games released that was specifically designed for Windows 95

Windows 95

Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...

. Released shortly after the 1995 debut Windows 95, the game optimization for the new operating system was heavily emphasised, and it was commonly bundled with OEM

Original Equipment Manufacturer

An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...

software on new computers with Windows 95 preinstalled on them, hoping to be identified with the hyped-up new OS and to boost sales.