MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Arcade Games Region or Version Differences

> Interested in arcade games which differ from region to region or by version for
> example
> blood and gore maybe different controls extra levels or characters if you know any id
> sure like to hear
> about some
> like...
> night slashers by data east japan version is uncensored with buckets of blood and
> gore
> Crime fighters 2 aka vendetta by konami japan version has extra gay characters
> removed from us releases
> battle shark by taito there's a jap joystick version which makes the game control far
> easier in MAME

Konami games are well known for changing things in their non-Japanese revisions:

Gradius is known as Nemesis outside of Japan. Gradius is the Japanese version where if you lose all your lives, you cannot continue and must start from level 1. It also has boot-up music when you first load the game, which Nemesis does not have.

Unlike Gradius, Nemesis allows you to continue if you lose all of your lives.

Gradius II is known as Vulcan Venture outside of Japan and was only released in Europe.

Like Nemesis, Vulcan Venture also allows continues, while Gradius II does not. In Gradius II (not Vulcan Venture), the Crystal Core boss has a slightly different attack pattern. In one revision, it is completely stationary, while in other one, it moves up and down the right side of the screen.

Gradius III's difficulty is significantly lower in its World and Asia versions, whereas the Japanese version is infamous for its difficulty. You cannot continue in any version of this game after losing all your lives, regardless of the region.

The 2nd level of Gradius III, aka the Bubble Level, in all of its non-Japanese versions has many fewer bubbles to shoot than in the original Japanese version.

If you die in the Asian and World versions, you retain only 1 or 2 of your options, instead of losing all of your weapons (including missile and speed-up)

In Gokujyou Parodius (aka Fantastic Journey outside of Japan), the American Eagle enemies' hats are censored and changed to the color green, for obvious reasons.

Outside of Konami, there is the well known case of the boss name changes in Street Fighter II, specifically the Boxer's name being changed to Balrog from Mike Byson, to avoid possible a lawsuit from Mike Tyson at the time.