Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge

Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge
Also known as: Bikkuri Nekketsu Shin Kiroku!: Harukanaru Kin Medal (JP), Surprise! Nekketsu New Records! The Distant Gold Medal (2020) Developer: Technos Japan Publishers: Technos Japan (JP), American Technos (US), Arc System Works (EU/AU) Platform: NES Released internationally: February 20, 2020 (Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle) Released in JP: June 26, 1992 Released in US: October 1992 Released in EU: November 28, 2013 (3DS Virtual Console) Released in AU: November 28, 2013 (3DS Virtual Console) This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has regional differences.

Imagine the Olympics. Now imagine the Olympics where everyone is trying to kill each other. That's this game.

Unused Graphics

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Is this still displayable?

In the Japanese version, there are letters stored with the title screen graphics that spell "SAMPLE VER."

Disabled Debug Menu

400M
BOU JUMP
HAMMER
JUDO
SWIM

SHOP
PNO TEST
SND TEST
SYOKUSYU
BACKTEST

The game contains an unused, unreferenced text display routine and associated strings for what appears to have been a debug menu. The text strings can be found at ROM address 0x4581.

Regional Differences

To do: A comparision between the Japanese and American scripts as the former now has an official direct English translation (as part of Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle)

As with every other Kunio-kun game at the time, this one also went through some pretty drastic changes when shipped overseas.

Title Screen

The US title screen was given a complete overhaul, unsurprisingly.

Japan	US	Worldwide

Introduction

The main antagonist Todd/Tōdō is wearing a school uniform in the Japanese version, which was changed to a tanktop/pants in the US release. His portrait in this scene was changed accordingly.

Japan	US

Todd/Tōdō and Skip/Yamada speak in front of a construction site in the Japanese version. This site is apparently where Tōdō's father is building a stadium specifically for this event. The scene was changed to the "Thornley Industries" building in accordance with the new story.

Japan	US

Characters

To do: Sprite rips of the CPU-only characters and palette comparisons.

Japan	US

All the teams and characters were renamed, with several of them getting a visual overhaul. Team Nekketsu (in white) underwent the most changes during its transformation into Southside High. While Kunio himself remained relatively the same when he became Crash Cooney, the rest of his team were given a makeover in some form or another: the second-in-command Sugata was renamed Cheese and was given a different hairstyle; the third member, Morimoto, became Dragon and was given slanted eyes similar to ones that the Dragon Twins have; and the last two members, Nanase and Ichijō, became two black characters named Sting and Noise.

Tōdō and Yamada, who were non-playable antagonists in the Japanese version, became Todd and Skip in the American version and were made into actual participants in the sporting events. Todd replaces Riki, Kunio's rival and captain of Team Hanazono (in blue), which becomes Washington High, while Skip replaces Ryūji, one of the Dragon Twins on Team Reihō (in red), which becomes Lincoln High. The other Dragon Twin, Ryūichi, is replaced by a new captain named Artie, a palette swap of Noise. The fourth team, Team Rengō (in green), which became Jefferson High, is only the team whose members were not changed between region. Rengō (which means union) does not represent a particular school, but instead is composed of members from different schools. Players of River City Ransom are likely to recognize Gōda, Godai and Nishimura as Ivan, Tex and Rocko, or as they're called in Street Challenge, Spreck, Clint and Baldy.

The CPU-only Oklahoma High School team (in purple) in the Japanese version became Team Thornley in the American version and underwent similar roster changes as the playable teams. Raphael, the sole black member of Team Oklahoma (whose design was used for Artie and Noise in the American version), became Crush, who uses the face as Riki, while Jimmy, a palette swap of the Dragon Twins (no doubt a reference to Double Dragon), became Foil, a palette swap of Sting.

Palette

In a matter similar to Super Dodge Ball and Nintendo World Cup, the Japanese version uses three palettes to represent the different races of characters featured in the game.

• The Japanese characters, which means practically all the playable characters plus a few NPCs such as Tōdō and Yamada, are drawn with black outlines and pink-ish skin tone.
• The white Americans that are part of Team Oklahoma are drawn with more yellow-ish skin tones and brown outlines.
• Raphael, the sole black member of Team Oklahoma, is drawn with a brown skin tone and black outlines.

In Street Challenge, the second palette is used for almost all the characters, while the third palette is used for Southside High members Sting and Noise. The first palette went unused. Despite this, the palette change was only partially applied on the team and athlete select screens, which gives all the white characters the more pink-ish skin tone of their Japanese counterparts.

Shop

Japan
US

The "drug" sign on the drugstore was changed to a "health food store" sign, likely due to the negative connotations that the word "drug" by itself has.

Also, the team's female manager will swing on the swing set if you move her to it. This little feature was removed from the US release.

400 Meter Hurdles

Japan
US

The background of the "400 meter hurdles" event was changed from a stadium to an alleyway. The sky palette was also made brighter.

(Note: This event uses four rows of parallax scrolling, which have been combined into a single image here.)

Hammer Throw

Japan	US

The sparse mountains in the background of the "hammer throw" event were changed to a cityscape. Again, the sky palette was made brighter.

Swimming

Japan	US

The background of the "swimming" event was changed from Japan to New York City.

Roof Top Jumping

Japan	US

The cityscape background was redrawn (the US version including the Twin Towers and other NYC landmarks) and the rooftops were recolored from gray to brown.

Fighting Scene

Japan
US

The background here was changed from a Shinto shrine to a city lot. It was also extended vertically by 16 pixels.

The characters also wear judo uniforms during this event, which was changed to their regular street clothes for the US release.

Misc.

Japan	US

The screen that introduces the events was completely redesigned. The Japanese version features Riki's girlfriend Mami on a blue background with the word "NEKKETU" tiled on it. The US version changes this to a brick pattern.

Japan	US

The podium shown at the end of each event was changed from a very Japanese scene with cherry blossoms to a more dilapidated-looking city lot.

Ending

The Japanese ending screen features an animation of Momozono (the manager/cheerleader of Team Nekketsu) swinging on a swing set. The US version replaces this with an advertisement for Crash 'n the Boys: Ice Challenge, which would have been a localization of the earlier-released Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey-Bu. Unfortunately, the planned Ice Challenge localization ended up being unreleased, though a translation of Nekketsu Hockey-Bu would eventually be released in 2020 as Go-Go! Nekketsu Hockey Club Slip-and-Slide Madness, as part of the Double Dragon and Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle compilation for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.

The story in the Japanese version also concludes with a staff roll, which was omitted from the US release.

Japan	US

Revisional differences

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Does this apply to other rereleases of the game?

In all versions of Kunio-kun: The World Classics Collection/Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle, the Red Cross icon present in the original Japanese version's drugstore was removed.