DJ Boy Playthrough 6/6 - Genesis/MD [Single Life]
0Original Air Date: September 03rd, 2009
So I finally found one of the lost games from my early years complete in a thrift store for $2 a few days ago and said to myself "Oh man! I gotta play this game!". What is it? It's none other than DJ Boy, an obscure and somewhat controversial one-player beat-em-up game by Kaneko. I played this game on my older brother's friend's Genesis during a rental and remembered almost nothing about the game other than the bomb-throwing girl on the first level and the rollerskates. I probably wasn't any older than six when I played it. The U.S. release has been edited in a number of ways and modified some of the original Japanese releases' questionable stereotypes but this game was rushed to market so quickly that evidence of the game's hack job is all over the place.
Still, what was removed didn't make the game much better and I decided to play this game on real hardware to celebrate my find. The first thing I did was do a little research on the game. Apparently, the word-of-mouth going around is that this game is a really hard game that most won't be able to clear without an emulator, save states, or Game Genie. I got the hang of the game in under an hour. I wouldn't say the game is easy, but the game might be unjustly criticized in that regard. In fact, I beat the game on Normal difficulty (the highest default difficulty) and again after I cleared the game on "Hard", all without losing a single life. I might play through the Japanese game via a ROM or through purchase (as a complete JPN copy is relatively cheap) because I want to confirm a few suspicions I have, but this is it otherwise.
Anyhoo, here's what the game is about (taken from the U.S. manual, typos and all):
Cigaretch City is a lively town on the outskirts of New York. A new sport has become popular amongst the children in Cigaretch City. The sport is Rollergame! Rollergame is an exciting battle of technique and speed. It is a thrilling game of out-running and being outrun. Rollergame is somewhat like the ultimate fight-race. A rollergame competition is coming up soon and the children in town are excited.
Just before the competition, a young man turns up in town. His name is Donald J. Boy, and he's nicknamed D.J. Boy. D.J. Boy has actually toured the world as a roller fighter, and he just happens to drop into Cigaretch City with his girlfriend, Maria. When news of D.J. Boy gets around, the town gets all excited. But not everyone is happy. D.J. Boy being around doesn't please the bad roller team, the Dark Knights.
The Dark Knights leader Heavy-Met Tony, calls his gang together straight away. "We can't afford to lose the next competition. We have to do something about that D.J. Boy."
"What are we gonna do? Go on, tell us!"
"Not cause a fuss, Let's get him to come over."
"Hey, it's gonna be real bad news if that D.J. Boy gets into the competition"
"Help! Help! Aah......!!"
"Maria.....!"
D.J. Boy comes running, but the Dark Knights are one step ahead of him, and Maria is carried off.
"You coward, Tony. Well, It's just a question of who is the better rollerskater!"
D.J. Boy sets out in search of his true love, Maria.
This game is very basic and somewhat controversial. Donald can punch (fast), kick (slow), jump kick (fast and powerful) and punch on both sides, a move you'll probably use maybe once, if that much. You can upgrade his abilities, buy a 1-up and restore health after each level with money you find. Get six hundred coins no matter what before the end of the first level and buy a power upgrade to have an easier start. Now for the editing... um, lol?
Well, the manual hilariously shows screenshots of the Japanese introduction, which was removed entirely from the U.S. game. This game had a stereotypical black woman as the first boss who farted and had big red lips in Japan who was changed to have light skin, though they didn't change the after-level artwork, which kinda defeats the purpose. The male stripper boss on the second level was modified to be a slightly less awkward "male escort". The levels were modified too, with the first level in the U.S. game bearing a scantily-dressed woman on a sign that says "Are you covered?", a reference and perhaps homage to Konami's same joke from Crime Fighters. The game lacks about 80% of the animation from the Arcade game (rough but fair estimate).
The ending is exactly the same in the Japanese and U.S. games, but the Japanese game showed artwork while the text rolled and made more sense when combined with its intro. As stated, I might play it through too to confirm some questions of mine.
Anyway, that's it. The first three parts are the normal play and the second three are the game looping into hard mode. It loops again but stays the same difficulty, so I wasn't playing it a third time. Enemies are powerful on Normal and Dangerous during the loop. They also take more hits to kill than on Easy. Enjoy.