DJ Boy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
DJ Boy, a 1989 arcade game by Kaneko was designed as a standard side-scrolling beat'em up game partially based on the hip-hop culture of U.S. cities. What made the game unique at the time was the fact that many of the characters rode around on roller skates, rather than walking or running. The game contained controversial content such as the presence of racial stereotypes, and some potentially offensive humor.
The premise of the game: the player character, a young boy on rollerskates attempting to rescue his girlfriend from her captors, skates across various stages and utilizes hand to hand combat moves in order to defeat opponents, culminating with a battle with a boss at the end of each level. Along the path, the player also encounters prizes, which then can be used later to purchase Power-ups from a store located at the end of each level. In the console versions of the game, as another game, River City Ransom, the "prizes" consist of coins that are dropped by defeated enemies, or food items like burgers that restore health.
[edit] Localization
The original Japanese release of the game featured caricatures that were part of the game's offbeat sense of humor that would've been seen as offensive if they were retained in its North American release. For example, the stage 1 boss was an overweight Black woman that attacked by farting (known as "Big Mama" in the home versions). Also, when the player hit the Big Mama a certain amount of times, she would temporarily drop to the ground head first and show off her white frilly slip that is underneath her dress and then force herself up again.
For the subsequent release in the U.S. and abroad, multiple changes were made. For example, Big Mama no longer farted; a male stripper character was replaced with a disco dancer. In the process, other questionable changes were made, among them the replacement of in-game billboards containing Japanese text with images of scantily clad women (and focusing on crotch images).
This appears to be the same type of "Are you covered?" scantily clad woman joke that was featured in Konami's Crime Fighters (a risqué reference to insurance sales), another arcade fighting game. The mission of the game was also changed, having gone from trying to rescue the character's girlfriend to attempting to recover his boombox. Lastly, the international release also featured in-game voice announcements by famed radio DJ Wolfman Jack.
[edit] Adaptations and sequel
In 1990, a home version for Sega's Genesis and Mega Drive systems was released both in Japan and the U.S. The Japanese Megadrive version includes a multi-panel "comic strip" style plotline at the beginning, showing the captured girlfriend. The US Genesis version changes the first boss' skin tone and has her throw glazed doughnuts at the player instead of farting fireballs.
She also throws one of the midget fighters (seen previously in the game) at the player (the implication is that all of these little guys might be her "kids"). The Genesis version does not feature the comic panel "plot" at the beginning, but still features the plot of rescuing a captive girlfriend and has the "Are you Covered?" billboards in the background.
In 1992, a sequel, B.Rap Boys! was produced and contained similar designs and content, although Kaneko, perhaps intending to deflect further criticism, made one of the player characters black. Electronic Gaming Monthly revealed in an interview with the Beastie Boys that Kaneko had wanted to license their images for an arcade game, which most likely turned out to be this game. [1]
