Regional differences between Genesis and Mega Drive games

[Furnessly]

Yeah, I imagine some of these are just region locked or very tiny differences or in the case of the EA stuff exactly the same in most cases. Some like Marble Madness are completely different to the point of being virtually different games (EA's one being more like the computer ports with bad sound while Tengen's JP is almost arcade perfect or at least very very close) though. Of course there are probably more differences than that but it is the case of what you know and won't mention the Sonic games since they are quite known in terms of changes.

The ones that I can name off the bat:

Shadow of the Beast JP has different (better) graphics for Aarbon and some of the enemies/bosses, some of the enemies that aren't changed had a different palette or a very minor change (as in a few pixels). The sprites can be found here: http://www.spriters-resource.com/gen...ast/index.html That version also has an option screen with a sound test/number of lives. Oh and it is NTSC fixed compared to the US/EU version where it was designed for PAL but EA (the publisher) having one cart to fit most regions deal and over saw the 50Hz/60Hz difference. The JP version was published by Victor.

Virtually different games:
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine/Puyo Puyo (same engine)
Marble Madness (JP, Tengen/M2?)/Marble Madness (US/EU, EA) [different programmers]
Magical Hat/Decap Attack (same engine with tweaks)
Klax (US/EU, Tengen)/Klax (JP, Namco) [different programmers]

Copyright/publisher changes:
RoadBlasters (U) credits Sterling Silver Software while RoadBlasters (JP) credits Lee Actor/Dennis Koble. Interestingly the RoadBlasters cart has a language/region setting so JP/NTSC = Japanese/Mega Drive, US/NTSC = English/Genesis, EU/PAL (not released) = English/Mega Drive (not sure about the last one though, have to recheck that one).
Fire Shark (U) credits Dreamworks, (JP) has the Toaplan logo and the EU version has no logo but the Dreamworks logo is in the ROM unused.
Rolling Thunder 2 and Talmit's Adventure (Burning Force as well?) credit Sega Enterprises Ltd. in the EU version.
John Madden Football (JP) is actually John Madden Football 92 but changes the copyright to EA Victor, changes the credits to include the "localised" staff and removes both John Madden's head (still in ROM though) and his message saying that he made an another Genesis game.
Winter Olympics (JP) removes the For Sega Mega Drive/Genesis message at the copyright screen and has some slight bug fixes (placebo effect?) but still is a terrible game with decent music.
Nigel Mansell's World Championship is credited to GameTek (U) and Konami (EU). As a result, the game starts differently between the two versions. In the US version, the Williams F1 car drives past the Sega logo then the copyright stuff but in the EU version the Konami screen starts first but can't remember if the car driving scene is still in or not after that.
Gain Ground (U) is credited to Renovation instead of Sega.
Mega Turrican (EU) is credited to Sony instead of Data East and as a result, the Presented by Data East voice is unused/removed.
Crack Down is credited to Sage's Creation on the title screen in the US version.

Graphic changes:
Marvel Land JP Prince Paco is more closer to the original arcade version while in the US/EU version (Marvel Land/Talmit's Adventure) Talmit has changed his hair for some reason. Also the title screen is different in all regions (JP = the same as the arcade, US = different, EU = completely different due to the name change).
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (JP) when you lose in a Janken match, Alex Kidd gets naked with only a leaf covering his privates. Since child porn is a big no-no in the US and the EU, instead he gets crushed by a ton weight. Unknown whether the Korean version is the same as the Japanese version or the US/EU version.
Cool Spot removes the 7up logo on the intro in the EU version.
Boogie Woogie Bowling (JP) has anime style portraits while Championship Bowling (US) has more realistic portraits. Also the US version changes copyrights to Mentrix Software.
James Pond II: Codename Robocod (JP) has a nice title screen instead of just text.
Rocket Knight Adventures (JP) has a different opening cutscene with a village getting attacked instead of Sparkster on a mountain and the Stage intros have an opossum band playing instead of a Sparkster portrait. Also I think there are also some difficulty changes between the 3 versions.


Other changes:
Asterix and the Great Rescue has some minor changes between the US/EU versions but sadly both versions feel like an early beta. The US version has theme names (e.g. Gaulish Village) that only appear one per stage but a shorter opening story. The EU version has a strange level name system (e.g. Level 1, Hut 1, Room 1) that appears on every stage and a slightly longer opening story. Also on the first Rome stage (Level 6, Hut 1-Room 1) has some minor level layout changes, there might be way more... Anyone who decides to cover this game in the beat all the US Genesis games thread has to make sure that it is the US version due to these changes.
DJ Boy (JP) has an intro, cutscenes and ending that were removed in the US/EU versions presumably due to ROM space. Also the Black Momma boss who farts was altered and censored to a White Woman throwing pies.
Super Airwolf (JP) has the Airwolf theme playing, while Cross Fire (US) has a different tune for the helicopter part in game and altering the music during the stage select, calling the character Billy (I think) and a different image in the Briefing Screen.
World Heroes (Asian version incorrectly called JP), the Player Select has a black background with the World Heroes logo instead of just blue in the US version. Also the MVS difficulty has been removed and replaced with a sound test. Sadly there are no other improvements in that version, no missing defeat hair loss portraits and the gameplay is the same.
Superman (EU) has a Virgin Games logo, includes a Options screen with a difficulty select/lives/Sound Test and removes the Sunsoft logo in the first stage (but is still in the ROM).
Speedball 2 (U) has horrible sound and only one song in the game, the (EU) and (JP) versions have music done by Matt Furniss with extra music. Apparently the JP versions also has palette changes but can't confirm.
European Club Soccer has club teams from Europe (e.g. Manchester United), World Trophy Soccer changes it to have world teams (smaller selection?) and J.League Champion Soccer has teams from the J.League (smaller selection?).
Streets of Rage II/Bare Knuckle II (EU/JP) has Blaze showing her panties during a jump kick. When the cart is set to JP mode, it also has Mr. X smoking and Skate is known as Sammy. Streets of Rage 2 (U) changes the logo and censors Blaze's jump kick.
We all know that Bare Knuckle III is better than Streets of Rage 3 (censorship, altered story, difficulty increase, changes for no reason).
Grand Slam: The Tennis Tournament 92 (JP) automatically has male players selected by default (pressing right goes to female), while Jennifer Capriati Tennis and Grand Slam (EU) default to female players (pressing left goes to male). The order is also slightly different with J. Capriati being no.1 in the US/Eu version while she is no.10 in the JP version. Since Grand Slam JP is in Japanese, I don't know any other changes but the players might have proper names? (one of them looks like Andre Aggasi) Oh and US version has a different title screen.
Prince of Persia (U) is more closer to the original version while Prince of Persia (EU) has an extra cutscene, music in game and different layouts. I think the EU version also has extra stages too.
Havoc (EU) starts at the pirate ship stage instead of the Green/Emerald Hill type stage in High Seas Havoc (U)/Captain Lang (JP), as a result the EU version has one less stage in the game normally (the stage is still there but disabled). Also adds the Codemasters copyright screen as well (I think).
Andre Aggasi Tennis (U) has an option screen that is not in the EU version, a different title screen and slightly different music. Basically different presentation but still the same game.
Super Masters Golf (JP) does not have the Fantasy Zone minigame that is in Arnold Palmer Tournmanent Golf (US/EU). Instead it has a scribble drawing.
Castlevania: The New Generation (EU) has censorship with blood being replaced by water in the title screen, Eric Lecrade's death animation is altered and the zombie enemy being palette altered. Vampire Killer calls John Morris, Johnny Morris.
Zombies (EU) has censorship compared to Zombies Ate Our Neighbors (US), one of the enemies got changed from a chainsaw maniac to a lumberjack and changes copyright to Konami.

Identical (from what I know):
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Sonic Compliation/Sonic Classics (except one version of Sonic Compliation has a region lock, that's it)

Not sure:
Either OutRun or OutRunners have a strange title screen related bug that got fixed in the Japanese version. Can't remember...
Comix Zone (JP) is slightly easier? I know that it has both the Japanese and the English text in game while the US version only has English.
Super Monaco GP II (U) is just a region lock
Super Monaco GP (US) is just a region lock compared to its original World release.
The only differences between The Chaos Engine and Soliders of Fortune are a different title screen and the EU version has Options (that don't seem to work).

Also in Head-On Soccer/Fever Pitch Soccer, the cartridge has both names depending on region.

[Sky Llama]

The versions of RKA were different enough that I bought both versions of the game. What no one has mentioned* is the difficulty levels are different and not just the intro screens and such.

While the American version wasn't technically more difficult, with the way the levels are set up it is.



*Someone did I just didn't see.

Also with Gunstar Heroes the game has two different back stories for both Japan and America.

[donluca]

[cut]

Whoa, that's quite a lot of information! Thanks for sharing!

[lumclaw]

Some of the differences may simply be region locking (some may have both NTSC, & PAL information on the cartridge, but region locking stops the game from booting in the wrong region)

For instance Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has both PAL and NTSC info present, and the cartridge would ordinarily check the region before starting and run at the correct speed for the correct region, but in its case the region locking stops the game booting in the wrong region. These ones can be fooled into booting correctly with a Game Genie bypassing the region check.

Yeah because of that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has unused English content in the (J) cartridge, and unused Japanese content in the US or PAL cartridges.

A few other games have stuff you can't normally see with their Japan mode blocking. 6-Pak, Streets of Rage 2 (U), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 inside the region locked version Sonic Compilation.

What's really strange though... Is that the Sonic Compilation version of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine will not load its hidden sound test in Japan mode.
I'm not a hacker to check the code to find a reason.

[Barone]

There's also a lot of info in this thread: http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthr...and-censorship

Some like Marble Madness are completely different to the point of being virtually different games (EA's one being more like the computer ports with bad sound while Tengen's JP is almost arcade perfect or at least very very close) though.

Yeah!
Also:
Tengen's JP version has even shorter time limit compared to the arcade while the EA's EU/US version has a LOT of extra time in comparison, crazy easy.
EA's version completely butchered the original game physics and ball's acceleration/speed. Some level specific tricks aren't possible anymore like they were in the arcade.
Tengen's JP version has analog input support using the mouse. You're supposed to use the JP/EU mouse model flipped down, 'cause it allows you to use ti as a trackball. The original arcade cabinet used an analog trackball as controller...

Shadow of the Beast JP has different (better) graphics for Aarbon and some of the enemies/bosses, some of the enemies that aren't changed had a different palette or a very minor change (as in a few pixels). The sprites can be found here: http://www.spriters-resource.com/gen...ast/index.html That version also has an option screen with a sound test/number of lives. Oh and it is NTSC fixed compared to the US/EU version where it was designed for PAL but EA (the publisher) having one cart to fit most regions deal and over saw the 50Hz/60Hz difference. The JP version was published by Victor.

JP version also has extra sfx but still missing a few when compared to the original Amiga version.

Other changes:
Speedball 2 (U) has horrible sound and only one song in the game, the (EU) and (JP) versions have music done by Matt Furniss with extra music. Apparently the JP versions also has palette changes but can't confirm.

Both EU and JP versions have a bit improved palette when compared to the crappy US version.
EU/JP version uses a different (much better) audio driver and has more sfx with better quality than the US version.

Prince of Persia (U) is more closer to the original version while Prince of Persia (EU) has an extra cutscene, music in game and different layouts. I think the EU version also has extra stages too.

About the EU version: "Most of all, the Mega Drive version features four all new levels, and time extending potions to make up for the longer journey.".


Also:
E-SWAT: JP version has no continues, so it's an instant game over. US/EU version has 3 continues.
Two Crude Dudes: EU version has green "alien" dogs due to censorship (maybe there's some other changes).
OutRun: JP version comes with km/h set as default and gear changes using the D-Pad instead of button C.
OutRunners: There's an exclusive cheat code for the JP version, take a look:

[DaddyMulk]

The versions of RKA were different enough that I bought both versions of the game. What no one has mentioned* is the difficulty levels are different and not just the intro screens and such.

While the American version wasn't technically more difficult, with the way the levels are set up it is.



*Someone did I just didn't see.

Also with Gunstar Heroes the game has two different back stories for both Japan and America.

So you're saying just the *names* of the difficulty levels vary by region? (USA Hard= JP Crazy Hard) Or do the Japanese/European versions actually have much higher levels of difficulty?

[Sky Llama]

So you're saying just the *names* of the difficulty levels vary by region? (USA Hard= JP Crazy Hard) Or do the Japanese/European versions actually have much higher levels of difficulty?

The game is not different at all between regions when it comes to difficulty with the exception of how the menu options are labeled. So Hard for JP/EU is identical to the US's easy mode.

On Crazy Hard for JP/EU or Hard for US you start with no extra lives, no continues and single hit deaths if I recall. And to get the proper ending of the game you only need to beat Hard for JP/EU or Easy for the US.

I don't know why they labeled it the way they did in the US because it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[Raistlin]

Puggsy: Although the arithmetic to gain the password for the 4 Bonus Levels are still there during the credits, the Pal Version left out these 4 Bonus stages. The password you'll get brings you only to the last boss. The odd thing is that if you're going to play the Pal Version on an japanese or US console using the password you're able to play all 4 Bonus stages because they are still at the cartridge and only unawailable on Pal mega Drives.

[Sonic Dude]

The differences between the Japanese Mega Drive and the Genesis it's the popularity, while the Mega Drive wasn't so popular in japan since the PC engine and the Super Famicom were still dominant there, the Genesis saw it's success in North America, taking 60% of the video game market. I just wish that Sega would have release some of the Japanese titles like Pulseman and golden axe 3 in cartridge form instead of releasing them on the Sega channel.

Ironically the saturn did Great in Japan while the rest of the world had PlayStation fever LOL.

[SegaMan89]

I remember this from a post on here some time ago:

Trouble Shooter: In the Japanese version of the game, Battle Mania, there is a code you can input to access a secret scene where Mania (AKA Madison) is jumping on a Super Famicom.

[BrianC]

It's not just Alex who can lose his/her clothes in the JP Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle. The oppoents end up the same way when they lose. One stage has a female character covering up herself with her arms when she loses.

Some games like Truxton and Fire Shark have some difficulty changes between versions. The JP versions on both are harder, as well as having a different title screen. However, both of these games have multiple versions on cart, so they play the JP version on JP systems or JP switch Genesises or the US version or US systems or English switched NTSC Mega Drives.

[lumclaw]

Mystic Defender US/EU version was given a larger cartridge to fit both languages. Instead of removing Japanese.
Ghouls N Ghosts JP version doesn't load an English title screen. I don't know if it's in the rom.

[Liquid Snake]

Some websites say that Fire Shark (Same! Same! Same!) can take two hits in JPN version, is it correct?
can someone confirm this information to me?

[chilled]

Some websites say that Fire Shark (Same! Same! Same!) can take two hits in JPN version, is it correct?
can someone confirm this information to me?

I can confirm this is false: I just checked both the U & J roms and for each of them, both in USA & JAP modes in Fusion (the title screen changes on both roms) and you die in one hit either way

[Barone]

If anything, Same! Same! Same! is supposed to be the harder game/version.