Battle Beast is a side-scrolling fighting game released for the PC in 1995. In the style of Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, a player can play against another human opponent or computer-controlled opponents in different levels using hand-to-hand combat, 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 network or the internet. Players can also battle in a cooperative mode together, where two players can progress through the single player levels together.
Source: Wikipedia, "Battle Beast", available under the CC-BY-SA License.