Altered Beast and Golden Axe characters return for a SEGA 25 year anniversary cameo
Sega’s Kingdom Conquest games are well-liked for their mixtures of action, strategy, and MMO gameplay. The latest entry: Kingdom Conquest II features a variety of gameplay styles all thrown into a pot and cooked together. One of those styles involves collecting monster cards to send into battle against monsters in neighboring lands.
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis videogame console, SEGA has just released monster cards based on its classic franchises into Kingdom Conquest II. The special cards feature artwork and characters from Altered Beast and Golden Axe, two arcade hits.
Game details
Kingdom Conquest II is a massively multiplayer online game. As such, it requires an internet connection to play. Luckily it supports both Wi-Fi and cellular data connections.
The game comprises three basic components:
- 3D Dungeon battles: Team up with up to four players and enter dungeons in search of loot and monsters to kill. The dungeon battles closely resemble Monster Hunter and SEGA’s own Phantasy Star Online series. Players can choose from Swordsmen, Warrior, Mage, Saint, and Ninja character classes.
- City building: After returning from the dungeon, you’ll work on fortifying and expanding your own stronghold. The city itself is rendered in 3D graphics, though the zoomed-out viewpoint looks a lot like what you’d see in 2D city building games. The buildings you construct will gather resources, house your troops, and much more.
- Monster battling: The money and resources you gather can be spent to purchase random monster cards from the shop. Monsters can then be arranged into units under commanders and even bred with each other to become more powerful. Send monsters out into surrounding wilderness to clear it and expand your stronghold – or attack other players.
Mega Drive 25th Anniversary Card Giveaway
The Golden Axe and Altered Beast cards appear in the game as rare collectible cards. To increase the chances of getting them, players can visit the official Kingdom Conquest II Facebook page and Twitter feed @KingdomConqGame. SEGA will be giving out codes that users can redeem in-game for the special cards.
What makes these cards so desirable? Altered Beast made waves as the original pack-in cartridge when the Sega Genesis debuted in America. It large, detailed sprites were amazingly close to the real arcade game. Players could transform from burly gladiators into various humanoid beasts like wolf and dragon. And no gamer can forget the grainy digitized voice of Zeus exclaiming “Rise from your gwave!”
As for Golden Axe, it too was a popular Genesis port of an original arcade game. Two players could cooperate as a team of barbarian, Valkyrie, or dwarf to hack and slash through hordes of vicious warriors. Golden Axe remains one of the best fantasy beat-em-ups of all time.
Prepare to collect and conquer
Kingdom Conquest II is free to play. Its in-app purchases consist of Charge Points, which can be used to speed up building completion times and monster battles. Being a rather large and complex game, it takes some time to learn. SEGA fans, grab it now and start hunting for those 25th Anniversary cards!
