Muscle Growth in Video Games

Yachirobi · #1 April 20th, 2006, 08:15 PM

Muscle-bound men in video games is nothing new. Like comic books, games are overflowing with strapping studs, many of whom prefer going shirtless when beating up the enemy. Muscle growth, however, is a little more rare but it's out there.

Mentioning games in the 'first sightings' thread got me thinking about some of the games that involve muscle growth as a game mechanic, meaning that you, as the player, get to make the main character get big, often when you choose. Here are three:

Altered Beast - Unless you never play games or are too young (in which case why are you reading this? This is an adults-only board!) you know how this one works. You gather up three power orbs per level. The first two orbs make you progressively bigger and more powerful and the third orb turns you into a different muscled up were-beast for each level.
Amagon - A rare game that not a lot of people know about (or like) which was released for the NES back in the 80s. It's about a Marine named Amagon who fights monsters on an island. He can collect a power-up which lets him turn into a muscled up guy, Megagon, who takes multiple hits of damage. Like I said, the game isn't very good (its too hard) but it doesn't take long to get to the growth.
Splatterhouse 3 - A bloody horror game. Technically all three games feature muscle growth in the story as the hero, Rick, wears a mask that makes his muscles bigger. In SH3 however, Rick collects globes which fill an energy bar. As long as there is energy in the bar you can transform into the more powerful 'Mutant' Rick. This is a nice mechanic as you can either transform as soon as you get a globe or wait until your power bar is full and stay transformed for a longer period of time.

There are lots of other games with muscle growth out there but these are the three that most come to mind. (And, no, I don't count Hulk games but only because they're pretty obvious choices.)

#2 April 21st, 2006, 05:00 AM

A new game - GTA San andreas, have gyms where you can work out and beef up your character; and if you keep lean (run a lot etc) you end up looking very nice

rebo · #3 April 21st, 2006, 11:13 AM

There is also the Ciy of Heroes/Villains games. In the extreemly versitle chatacter creater you get the options of male/female/and HUGE.
After you select your basic shape you can alter it further with stuff like chest size and sholder width.
Finally you get to create a costume from an almost endless list of options.

I figure if you are gonna e playing the game for a while, might as well like lookin at the character you are staring at the whole time.

CelticMuscle · #4 April 21st, 2006, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by renbo

A new game - GTA San andreas, have gyms where you can work out and beef up your character; and if you keep lean (run a lot etc) you end up looking very nice

There's actually a cheat on this for the PS2

Max Muscle
Muscle will be increased to maximum.
Triangle, Up, Up, Left, Right, Square, Circle, Left

Maxed Lung Capacity
This cheat will cause your lung capacity to increase which allows you to swim underwater for a long time without dying.
Down, Left, L1, Down, Down, R2, Down, L2, Down

and for the Xbox

Max Muscle
Muscle will be increased to maximum.
Y, Up, Up, Left, Right, X, B, Left

Maxed Lung Capacity
This cheat will cause your lung capacity to increase which allows you to swim underwater for a long time without dying.
Down, Left, L Trigger, Down, Down, Black, Down, White, Down

SithSpawn · #5 April 26th, 2006, 02:07 PM

Has anyone tried this thing out? You can make your own superhero/villain. Not sure if you can use it in any games or not but I thought it was pretty cool.

Durkluster2.0 · #6 April 26th, 2006, 08:49 PM

WOW!

This thing is way cool! It takes awhile to load, but it shows promise for what you can get with the free stuff alone.

Uhm-.- · #7 April 27th, 2006, 06:05 AM

Uh oh,its time to share with my knowledge about games O_o
About Altered Beasts - I played only version for Gameboy Advance...our hero is guy from ancient Greece which Zeus called to rescue world from hands of big bad guy (forgot his name >.>) Our hero (does he have a name? :/) after picking power ups is going bigger,and after taking 2 power ups he is "BIGGEST HUMAN" (doh,not so big at all,he's only in blue...robe...we see his chest and legs)...ok,when he stand its ok,but when he moving...c'mon,he's walking like he have a stick on his ass!Geez,i tought he would be like "Mwahhaha,look at me,im biggest god,all monsters must die,mwahhaha" :/ After picking up a 3rd power up he's chaning into a animal(certain levels-certain animals) I didn't like this game :/

About mmorpg games...well,i played a lot of them and i can reccomend some game's where character aren't stiff small guys looking like kids ;P

Knight Online - Men's are soooo muscled,but the orcish race (forgot how they're called) is more sexy xDDD

This one is my favourite...and its free!! (www.knightonlineworld.com)

Ok next thing - hero machine !So cool,i created 3 characters and i preety like them xD

Inquisitor - http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/281/nareth6he.jpg
Battle Mage - http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8...tlemage5wm.jpg
Solider - http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/1526/solider2ky.jpg

I'm no good in things like that...

Oooooooh,and somebody have a full version of this hero creator? :P

chris_abs · #8 April 27th, 2006, 12:54 PM

i made one too ;-)

Uhm-.- · #9 April 28th, 2006, 10:17 AM

)

nypup2train · #10 April 29th, 2006, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uhm-.-

Uh oh,its time to share with my knowledge about games O_o
About Altered Beasts - I played only version for Gameboy Advance...our hero is guy from ancient Greece which Zeus called to rescue world from hands of big bad guy (forgot his name >.>) Our hero (does he have a name? :/) after picking power ups is going bigger,and after taking 2 power ups he is "BIGGEST HUMAN" (doh,not so big at all,he's only in blue...robe...we see his chest and legs)...ok,when he stand its ok,but when he moving...c'mon,he's walking like he have a stick on his ass!Geez,i tought he would be like "Mwahhaha,look at me,im biggest god,all monsters must die,mwahhaha" :/ After picking up a 3rd power up he's chaning into a animal(certain levels-certain animals) I didn't like this game :/

Wow, did you screw yourself, youngster! Gameboy Advance? The GameBoy wasn't even a glimmer in some underpaid Japanese wage-slave designer's mind when Altered Beast first hit the arcades. (Yes, ARCADES, where people of my generation played video games... stuck by our Cons to the movie-theater-sticky floor and cursing at the broken controllers and loud cheaters around us, not comfy on a sofa in front of a hi-def plasma with speakers in all directions!) You missed out.

I can attest that, in the arcade version of Altered Beast, the titular character got fairly studly before his transformation to (also-studly) beast form. Hell, I think that game was probably one of the primary forces during my "puberty years" responsible for the funny pants-tightening feeling that eventually morphed into the fantasies that drive me to this site, and others like it... even if I didn't know it yet.

Of course, my memory of the game may be colored by the relatively low expectations we had for graphics quality, back when the Universe still fit in a pocket. We had to use our im-aggy-nations more back then. Whatever reality is, I'll stick with my version of it.

Uhm-.- · #11 April 29th, 2006, 07:59 AM

Hola hola,did I say i don't like whole series? (Doh,my words could be understanded wrong)
The version for gameboy advance sux,but arcade - rox.I remember when I was playing with my friend Altered Beast on Sega Genesis...that was veeery cool...Hmm too bad they screwed up Altered Beast for GBA...they should make a remake :P

Ok.Anybody know more muscle games? :P (It even may be internet flash game ;P)

Malack101 · #12 April 29th, 2006, 09:18 AM

There is some muscle growth in Fable for Xbox. You can go into berserk mode which increases your size and muscle mass. I just haven't found any videos of it :\

buffmorph · #13 April 29th, 2006, 12:25 PM

Fable is also available for PC now. It's called Fable The Lost Chapters. I bought it last week. Berserk mode was one of the first things I got. I LOVE using it. Also when you level up your strength stats your character gets more muscular. I can't wait for my guy to get huge!

Uhm-.- · #14 April 29th, 2006, 02:39 PM

Buffmorph can u use some codes for fable and get maximum strength,and after this go in berserk mode and do some pics or movie? :P I would be grateful

buffmorph · #15 April 29th, 2006, 03:38 PM

I would love to. Only problem is I don't have the proper video card for the game so there are somethings I can't do. I think my photo journal is one of them because I haven't figured it out yet. On top of that all the water in the game is yellow. That being said I'll see what I can do.

MuscleMage · #16 April 29th, 2006, 04:23 PM

Actually, leveling up in Fable is very easy if you know how to manipulate combat modifiers.

When you get a potion of strength, hold off on drinking. Second, get physical shield and level that a few times so it doesn't eat your mana so quickly. Third, turn on your physical shield and build up a large battle multiplier, more or less than 20 is fine. Now, while your combat modifier is still up, drink the potion. It will give you 1000 x multiplier for tons of experience! This can be done with any of the potions.

Something else I'd like to add...

Strength = muscle size yay!
Health = muscle size + hair
toughness = just hair

And you might also think about throwing a lot of points in Agility. Increasing agility will increase your character's height.

Durkluster2.0 · #17 April 30th, 2006, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuscleMage

Something else I'd like to add...

Strength = muscle size yay!
Health = muscle size + hair
toughness = just hair

And you might also think about throwing a lot of points in Agility. Increasing agility will increase your character's height.

Thanks! I always wondered how that worked.

Uhm-.- · #18 April 30th, 2006, 01:59 PM

Then im waiting for maxed out stat berserkers from Fable XD

Also i just remembered a name of game...well it isnt a HUMAN muscle growth,but animals...i mean Black & White games,where you are a god and you have your "little" (they're can be HUGE) pets...There is Black & White 1 and 2 for PC,so you can enjoy...(i remember when i played 1st part of game and i had tiger XD He grown a "little" by this whole time :3)

Cai · #19 April 30th, 2006, 07:50 PM

I dont know if this works for PC, but in the Xbox version in order to stay in beserk mode all the time, you need to be in beserk mode, then save and quit. When you reload your game you should be all huge, and stay huge. BUT if you use Beserk again, your character will revert back to whatever his size is at the end of beserk mode.

When I played I had my character all huge through most of the game, and when I finally got like Strength maxed out, and I finally turned off the beserk mode, my character was pretty big, not that much smaller then that of beserk mode.

darkluster4 · #20 April 30th, 2006, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cai

I dont know if this works for PC, but in the Xbox version in order to stay in beserk mode all the time, you need to be in beserk mode, then save and quit. When you reload your game you should be all huge, and stay huge. BUT if you use Beserk again, your character will revert back to whatever his size is at the end of beserk mode.

When I played I had my character all huge through most of the game, and when I finally got like Strength maxed out, and I finally turned off the beserk mode, my character was pretty big, not that much smaller then that of beserk mode.

I think it has to be an auto save where you go in a location and it save for you.

Uhm-.- · #21 May 1st, 2006, 05:38 AM

Give a pics!Give a pics! Or a movie! :P

xythan_shadow · #22 May 1st, 2006, 09:16 AM

Yeah, for Fable, the orignal at least, all you had to do was cast bezerk, any level, then save and quit. When you reloaded, your char was in the nice hulking mode.

straywolf · #23 May 8th, 2006, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uhm-.-

Give a pics!Give a pics! Or a movie! :P

I've got some pics for the muscle growth of my chara.

This is the growth you'll experiance if you use the exp-growth. I can't get a screen of the "berserk trick"-growth since, to my dissapointment, it was disabled in the PC version. (The "berserk trick" wasn't that hot though, be looked kinda deformed and I do like him better the normal way.

)

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i5...blemuscle1.jpg - Before
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i5...blemuscle2.jpg - Halfway through
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i5...blemuscle3.jpg - At the end

benchdude · #24 May 10th, 2006, 07:07 AM

I have a question for everyone, hopefully this is a suitable thread for it..
what software/hardware do you all use for getting stuff from TV/video games to computer? I've tried a couple different things and the picture quality was so bad it wasn't even worth it. I haven't done any in like 5 years so I assume the technology is better now. something preferably not much more than $100 if possible.

rebo · #25 May 10th, 2006, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benchdude

I have a question for everyone, hopefully this is a suitable thread for it..
what software/hardware do you all use for getting stuff from TV/video games to computer? I've tried a couple different things and the picture quality was so bad it wasn't even worth it. I haven't done any in like 5 years so I assume the technology is better now. something preferably not much more than $100 if possible.

Most computer video games have a screen shot function.

For ones that don't you can usually get around by using alt + print screen. Then paste it into an image editing program, like Photoshop.

As for consol games, you need to get a graphics card that will allow for S Video or composit input, then use the alt+print screen method from above.

Also another note. A lot of games allow you to hide the HUD (heads up display) and/or menus, it really makes the shots look a lot better and they are easier to work with.

benchdude · #26 May 10th, 2006, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rebo

Most computer video games have a screen shot function.

For ones that don't you can usually get around by using alt + print screen. Then paste it into an image editing program, like Photoshop.

As for consol games, you need to get a graphics card that will allow for S Video or composit input, then use the alt+print screen method from above.

Also another note. A lot of games allow you to hide the HUD (heads up display) and/or menus, it really makes the shots look a lot better and they are easier to work with.

ok, let me try again.... what software do people use to get things from TV to computer? like if you record a movie or something and want to make a piece of it into an mpeg or get screen shots of TV shows or whatever..

ljobenza · #27 May 11th, 2006, 07:58 AM

You can use a modern digital camera with usb support. Plug in the camera to the usb port of your PC and (if you're using WinXP) the computer automatically detects it. It will be available in your hard drive as an external device. You can copy your videos from it to your computer.

benchdude · #28 May 11th, 2006, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ljobenza

You can use a modern digital camera with usb support. Plug in the camera to the usb port of your PC and (if you're using WinXP) the computer automatically detects it. It will be available in your hard drive as an external device. You can copy your videos from it to your computer.

omg this is getting ridiculous.. doesn't anybody have a clue what I'm talking about? who said anything about a digital camera?

I'm talking about recording movies or TV shows, such as on TiVo or something, and then capturing those recordings or pieces of them into mpegs, or doing screen shots of them. I don't know how to describe it any clearer.

RTNX · #29 May 15th, 2006, 02:42 PM

Afaik, you could use a tv DVD recorder to record shows, use the vivo (video in video out) function of some grafic cards, or a pc tv tuner...
If you are willing to buy something, the first choice would be the best since the other two are more expansive, less usefull and more annoying to operate (you have to extend cables everywere).
A sandalone DVD recorders are nowadays quite cheap. Though a better investment would be a DVD recorder WITH a hard disk, very usefull if you come across a show you want to record but you ran out of DVDs.
They are more expansive but I think it would be a better investment.

If I'm not much mistaken, most DVD recorers record stuff in MPEG2, though I'm not sure on that one, (mine records in mpeg2) and all you would have to do is copy this file into your computer and work with it.

TheMM · #30 May 15th, 2006, 03:39 PM

This thread is kinda gettin off topic, so I'll post my two cents. I found this lil game in a rather different spot. Enjoy it to your own pleasure.

http://www.sikids.com/games/sportsdude/

thrae218 · #31 June 23rd, 2006, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMM

This thread is kinda gettin off topic, so I'll post my two cents. I found this lil game in a rather different spot. Enjoy it to your own pleasure.

http://www.sikids.com/games/sportsdude/

oh man, this is actually a great find ^^ I love getting this guy mega-buff, then making him fat, then making him huge again...

yea, this is pretty fun

Uhm-.- · #32 October 10th, 2006, 08:05 AM

Anybody got more flash muscle games?Bodybuilder manager or something? Oo

TheMM · #33 October 14th, 2006, 02:04 PM

Although not exactly muscle growth, it is hot to think about.

(NERDINESS coming up!)

This site has various Action Replay cheats, one of those is a cheat for Super Smash Brothers Melee, and obviously it couldn't be mg, but here we go. The cheat allows Super Mushrooms to "stack" allowing your character to grow indefinately, I can't place the cheat here, but I can do this:

http://arcentral.net/

CTeen · #34 December 9th, 2006, 11:57 AM

Thought yall would like this one... just a quick flash game. The power-up is fun.

http://www.mtv.com/games/arcade/#/ga...ameId=10054156

Wild · #35 December 20th, 2006, 02:16 PM

There is a decent muscle growth in Final Fantasy 12 when you're on the final boss. The character there gets transformed by using a crystal, and damn, he looks very nice aftwards. Though, the face... wasn't so nice to look at. And there is a summon that's called Hashmal.. very nice muscles on that fellow too. ^_^

CelticMuscle · #36 December 20th, 2006, 04:31 PM

What about Wario Ware on the Wii? I undertand that Mowhawk Squat is generating some buzz

Yachirobi · #37 December 20th, 2006, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wild

There is a decent muscle growth in Final Fantasy 12 when you're on the final boss. The character there gets transformed by using a crystal, and damn, he looks very nice aftwards. Though, the face... wasn't so nice to look at. And there is a summon that's called Hashmal.. very nice muscles on that fellow too. ^_^

Ooh, next time use a spoiler warning! I'm waiting for Christmas for 12!

I will look for Hashmal however.

And, someday, I hope that they choose a muscleman to be the Final Fantasy lead rather than a preteen transsexual hermaphrodite.

TheMM · #38 December 20th, 2006, 05:39 PM

That's true about FF. Although Tidus from X was pretty cute.

Wild · #39 December 20th, 2006, 09:58 PM

Ahhh... Tidus wasn't that good. Sabin from FF3 on the other hand... but then again, Locke was my favorite. ^_^

And I forgot to mention, while it isn't growth, the Bangaa in the game are basicly a race of muscled lizard men.

ljobenza · #40 December 21st, 2006, 07:48 AM

Did you just say lizard!? Bangaa's hate people when they say that! :P