Some of the games can have sometimes massive difference between regions, but there doesn't seem to be any resource on the 'Net detailing into one convenient place and I think that could be useful.
I'm not including things like the parental advisory warnings, "Winners don't use drugs" screens and games having different title screens to accomodate different names.
Game and Dip settings difference:
Aero Fighters 3
The European mode is vastly more difficult than either the American or Japan modes (both of which appear to be the same difficulty). Bullets are faster, enemies are more aggressive, move faster and have no problem with pointblanking you... ect.
The Europe MVS bios is the default on MAME and other emulators, which is likely why the game is reputed as being far harder than its predecessor, when (on 2 regions out of 3) it kind of isn't.
Alpha Mission 2/ASO II
ASO II has a strange trick that alters the appareance of the final boss so that it has the head of a baby. The trick is not possible in the western versions.
The motions inputs were changed for the western release. Mostly, the acrobatic attacks were made charge-based and the projectiles were standardized to use qcf+p.
Magical Drop II
A mode (which consists of solving pre-made puzzles) was removed from the Western versions. The hardest difficulty for the remaining modes was also removed.
Magical Drop III
The hardest difficulty of the VS CPU mode was removed from the Western versions.
The Magical Journey mode is heavily dumbed down. In the Japanese version, there are other characters on the board competing with you, and if you land on the same space, you either have the choice of backing off or fighting them as you would in the VS CPU mode. The western versions simply removed the other characters, making the mode a lot more simplistic.
Neo Geo Cup '98
Copypasting Wikipedia:
There are some regional differences between versions of the game. In the North American version, the player can play a exhibition match, tournament mode, and change the options. However, in the European release, the player can only play tournament mode.
Neo Drift Out
The cars accelarate faster in the US setting vs EUR and Jap, making the game easier to complete.
There seems to be some differences with the position of competing cars. Stage 1 on US has a blue Subera Imprezza-ish vehicle at the end of stage 1, which is not there in the other regions.
Neo Turf Masters
The courses are in a different order on the course select screen in the US, EURO and JPN
versions.
Ninja Commando
The Japan bios gives you two lives at the start, while you only have one with the western bios. As with most changes of this type, this can easily be changed in the dips setting.
Prehistoric Isle 2
The Japanese AES mode (but curiously, not Japanese MVS) uses a lifebar instead of the traditional life system. In this mode, when you get it while carrying peoples on the rope, you only lose one of them.
Note that you can get the lifebar mode by going in the dips and cycling through the "Hero/#" setting.
Shock Troopers
The blood is censored when playing with a Euro BIOS by default which also means you can achieve a significantly higher score (Elaboration here). It's possible to have blood in the game by changing the soft dip setting.
Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad
Differences lie in pre-set controller configuration.
JP Ver: B is jump, C is bomb/grenade
US Ver: B is bomb/grenade, C jump
Streets Hoop/Dunk Dream/Street Slam
In the US/EURO version matches consist of two halves of 2 minutes whereas in the JPN version the whole match is one period of 2 minutes.
Strikers 1945 PLUS
The Japanese version gives you 3 lives while the Western versions default to 2. This can be easily changed in the dips setting.
Top Hunter
The Japanese version AES version has cheats that lets you skip directly to the final level, increase the number of credit or make the mecha suit more powerful. Instructions here .
(credits to Gemant)
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Graphical and/or storyline changes:
2020 Super Baseball
This one is really minor: When you score an homerun in the western versions, a message says "It's outta here!" while in the Japanese mode, it just says "HOME RUN!".
Breaker's Revenge
The Japanese version shows an ominous-looking message after you input your score.
Even though Magical Drop III has been mentioned already, there is one huge difference that hasn't been pointed out.
Each character in the JAP version has it's own voice. The characters say different things depending on your (or CPUS) actions.
In the EURO various characters share voices.
In the US version there are even less voices and most of the games voices are replaced by a very boring announcer voice.
YouTube Video
Euro^
YouTube Video
^Japanese
Needless to say, the Japanese version is the best, as it is WAY more enjoyable when each character has their own voice and sayings.
Also, in "Challenge" mode, you only get character specific endings in JAP region.
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Also there are a few games that have completely different intros from AES to MVS. Only two I can remember at the moment are Mutation Nation and Sengoku.
Anybody else know any more?
Matrimelee
The US version has a different soundtrack from the JPN version.
(from Kaz's review)
In US mode, all of the tracks with lyrics are removed and replaced by the songs normally used for just the RotD characters, and one other track. While those tracks are quite good, it totally sucks to play through the game with just them. They even changed the music during the end credits to a really lame and annoying one (the normal one is a remix of all the songs in the game).
Metal Slug (whole series)
This one is pretty well-known, the western versions censors the blood to be white “sweat”. This can easily be changed in the dips setting.
Money Idol Exchanger
(from Wikipedia)
In the American and European arcade versions, the coins are made to look generic. In the Japanese version of the game, the coin is localized and looks much more like a yen coin.
Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
The continue screen in the EURO/US version is different from JPN version.
[/quote]
Savage Reign
The stage names are different in the US/EURO version compared to the JPN version e.g. Carol (US/EURO La Rue Diamuse JPN French Park), Gordon (US/EURO Dock of Darkness JPN Midnight Port), Joker (US/EURO Palace of Fun JPN Joker World) etc. Nicola's stage is the same in both versions though.
Spinmaster/Miracle Adventure
The location of the airport the beginning is different depending on the region.
In the US version, the teams represent various US cities, while in European and Japanese mode, they’re from all over the world. The map screen is also changed accordingly.
The Super Spy
In the US/EURO version the boss Pink always wears white panties while in the JPN version
there are 5 different colours: white, pink, purple, white with red polka dots and red with
yellow polka dots. This, erm, interesting factoid is outlined in BBH's highly informative guide to the game.
The Japanese version has five endings, which are obtained by defeating each of the final bosses with a specific special move. Doing all fives moves will net you a secret ending. Detailled instructions here, or here if you can read Italian.)
(ty Gemant)
Korean versions differences:
Korean versions tend to have rather random changes and censorship, so they get their own section:
Fight Fever
In the Korean version there's a Korean flag on the title screen instead of flames.
In the Korean version the names of some characters have been changed:
Akari Ichijou --> Choi Jae Eun
Genbu no Okina --> Kang Tae Kong
Juzoh Kanzaki --> Back Chon Ji
Kaede --> Kim Doohan
Keiichiro Washizuka --> Yagyu
Lee Rekka --> Hwang Bi Hong
Shigen Naoe --> Kwa Ji Mo Do
Shinnosuke Kagami --> Mr. Bin
Yuki --> Kelly
There are some regional differences between versions of the game. In the North American version, the player can play a exhibition match, tournament mode, and change the options. However, in the European release, the player can only play tournament mode.
why are they so mean to us European players? grrr *shakes fist*
Nice thread Glowsquid. This will be very interesting i think.
Breakers Revenge
when you die and it's Game Over in the Japanese version you get a game-over screen that isnt in the other region versions with Japanese text on it. I have no idea what it says but I have always wanted to know!
btw since i dont know much about differences in Neo Geo games i have decided to sum up the difference between European/UK SNES games and the US and Japanese SNES versions:
SNES European version = Sh*t!
US/Japanese version = Great!
job done Edited by RiKo on 12. September 2011 13:53
Arrha!! So that is why i dont like Aero Fighters 3 very much!! When i did the mod on my NEO-GEO CD i didnt bother with the US mode, i only put Japan and Euro in there...
Ok, Prehistoric Isle 2, on Japan version you get a life bar, and if you get hit, you lose one life point, and also your power up level drops down one, and you lose one person holding onto the rope. You can also get an item which fills your health back to full.
US/Euro version you get lives, 1 hit and you are back to base power level, and you lose ALL of the people under you.
@RiKo: ty. I updated the OP with that along with the japanese Top Hunter endings I had forgotten to include.
@NEO-GEO man : I don't think the life-system in PI2 is based on regions actually. At least when I screwed around with the Universe Bios in an emulator, the Japanese version had the one-hit system and I had to go in the dips setting to change it.
@NEO-GEO man : I don't think the life-system in PI2 is based on regions actually. At least when I screwed around with the Universe Bios in an emulator, the Japanese version had the one-hit system and I had to go in the dips setting to change it.
Yes it is, ive got both Japan and Euro AES consoles here, and you cant change that setting on the AES. All you can do is change the difficulty with the same 8 settings as Blazing Star has.
Also, 2020 Super Baseball is different on Japan region, when you hit a home run on the US or Euro version, it says "ITS OUTER HERE!!!" If you do it on Japan region, it says "HOME RUN!!!!"
Wow what a compilation of differences. Why on earth would Japan want to make the moves in Fatal Fury more complicated? I knew about the puzzle mode of Magical Drop II from the SNES version which is also Japanese. It isn't fair that in games alike the Western versions of many games are always trimmed down.
Thanks for mentioning the five endings in Top Hunter. These I've got to see.
I dont think so, i reckon the Japan moves are easier to pull off. The yank and euro ones are more unreliable... I have about 99% sucsess with moves on Japan BIOS, and about 80% with others.
A while ago, merlin linked to the wayback archive of Gemant's tips and secret page in the shoutbox, but I only took a look at it today. I updated the OP with stuff from Alpha Mission 2/ASO II and Top Hunter.
I haven't taken an in-depth look at it yet so there's probably more relevant infos on there.
Great idea for a thread Glowsquid. Good work. I'm glad that link yielded some useful info.
Here are a few fairly minor differences that haven't been mentioned yet.
Dunk Dream - In the US/EURO version matches consist of two halves of 2 minutes whereas in the JPN version the whole match is one period of 2 minutes.
Savage Reign - The stage names are different in the US/EURO version compared to the JPN version e.g. Carol (US/EURO La Rue Diamuse JPN French Park), Gordon (US/EURO Dock of Darkness JPN Midnight Port), Joker (US/EURO Palace of Fun JPN Joker World) etc. Nicola's stage is the same in both versions though.
Differences lie in pre-set controller configuration.
JP Ver: B is jump, C is bomb/grenade
US Ver: B is bomb/grenade, C jump
Quite confusing!
I played through the JP version the other day, without reading the in game text due to it being Japanese. On my 2nd playthrough I decided to change the bios to US. As soon as the game began I tried to jump into a vehicle and I tried to grenade it! I thought I was going nuts tbh. Then I pressed C and I jumped on in.
I reset and watched the 'how to play' demo and sure enough it illustrated C as jump and b as bomb. I reset the game, switched the bios to JPN and watched the 'how to play' again (just to be sure) and, yep, sure enough, the config WAS different.
Luckily/sadly, I prefer the JP config myself (as I use a pad )
He's listed as one of the site's authors. Maybe someone who can speak Italian can talk to him and see if we can get all his tips and tricks back online?
Gemant is a member on this board, actually. Apparently, Merlin asked him about reuploading those scans here, but I don't know if anything came out of that.
I forgot to get in touch with Gemant but have now messaged him at neo-geo.com. I did find this post at neo-geo.com though so maybe the guide still needs to be rescanned. Some of the pages are missing from the wayback machine.
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