Saturn game with region or version changes

[slicer1000]

So Riven over at the Randomised Gaming, has written up a nice feature, on some of the various changes between the different releases of a number of Saturn games: randomisedgaming.tumblr.com/post/163253020547/sega-saturn-games-with-major-region-and-version

It's surprising how many games got changes between regions like Sega Rally and Daytona USA, the Juggernaut code which got pulled from the PAL version of X-Men COTA:


Anita getting pulled from Marvel Super Heroes is also quite well known, but Athlete Kings had a secret character called Mankichi Kazami who was pulled and Winter Heat the Japanese version had Jef Jansens added as a hidden character.

Lots of other changes are listed as well, maybe I should get Riven to add the fact that the PAL version of King of Fighter '95 had the standard English Neogeo censorship so no Mai, bouncing animation, that a minor issue however.

My question to the members of this forum is what other Sega games do you know had changes between it's release in another region. There's going to be plenty more out there with the size of the Saturn library.

[linkt101]

Tomb Raider had some minor differences, given how buggy and incomplete the PAL release was. The most notable difference being in the Thor Room in Level 5. The floor is completely level in the PAL version allowing you to push the block into the lighting room. There's also the missing secret in the Cistern level which is impossible to obtain in the PAL version.

[slicer1000]

Jul 28, 2017 17:55:45 GMT linkt101 said:

Tomb Raider had some minor differences, given how buggy and incomplete the PAL release was. The most notable difference being in the Thor Room in Level 5. The floor is completely level in the PAL version allowing you to push the block into the lighting room. There's also the missing secret in the Cistern level which is impossible to obtain in the PAL version.

The PAL was rushed due to the Sega deal, there was an interview with CORE where they said how much they hated that deal, so their are a few buggy fixes in the Japanese version, I take it she still can't do a handstand however.

It's always interested me to see if there was much change I know from iPlaySega that the screen picture is slightly bigger in the NTSC version giving you a touch better field of view but not by much.

[linkt101]

I haven't played the Japanese version, but there is no handstand in the NA version of the game. However, the NA version does allow you to save to your memory cart.

[sych]

The Japanese version of Tomb Raider is more generous on save points. That's the biggest thing I remember.

Juggernaut is still accessible as a playable character on PAL and US versions of X-Men: Cota via the Action Replay. Plus you can use Magneto and Akuma too.

Obviously Pandemonium is Magic Hoppers in JPN with two different looking leading characters.

JPN Fighting Vipers has Pepsi Man while other versions don't.

[slicer1000]

Jul 28, 2017 18:42:16 GMT sych said:

The Japanese version of Tomb Raider is more generous on save points. That's the biggest thing I remember.

Juggernaut is still accessible as a playable character on PAL snd US versions of X-Men: Cota via the Action Replay. Plus you can use Magneto and Akuma too.

Obviously Pandemonium is Magic Hoppers in JPN with two different looking leading characters.

JPN Fighting Vipers has Pepsi Man while other versions don't.

The PAL PlayStation version had tons of save points compared to the PAL Saturn version,so the NTSC J Saturn version has some of those extra save pints added in then that's good to know. Maybe it's time I picked up a copy. Currently I only have the PAL version.

The Akuma code still works in the PAL version, and the arcade mode cheat is missing in both PAL and NTSC-U versions of the game, see the feature I linked too for more details.

More than just Pepsi Man, Honey had a new outfit and hidden armour break move, the gallery also got pulled in the NTSC-U version.

[sych]

Jul 28, 2017 19:16:00 GMT slicer1000 said:

Jul 28, 2017 18:42:16 GMT sych said:

The Japanese version of Tomb Raider is more generous on save points. That's the biggest thing I remember.

Juggernaut is still accessible as a playable character on PAL snd US versions of X-Men: Cota via the Action Replay. Plus you can use Magneto and Akuma too.

Obviously Pandemonium is Magic Hoppers in JPN with two different looking leading characters.

JPN Fighting Vipers has Pepsi Man while other versions don't.

The PAL PlayStation version had tons of save points compared to the PAL Saturn version,so the NTSC J Saturn version has some of those extra save pints added in then that's good to know. Maybe it's time I picked up a copy. Currently I only have the PAL version.

The Akuma code still works in the PAL version, and the arcade mode cheat is missing in both PAL and NTSC-U versions of the game, see the feature I linked too for more details.

More than just Pepsi Man, Honey had a new outfit and hidden armour break move, the gallery also got pulled in the NTSC-U version.

The Pal version of Tomb Raider is still good though just a bit more challenging. I'm on level 13 at the moment, had I not recently been obsessed with Winning Post and Iron Storm I might have completed it by now.

I know you can still access Akuma on PAL X-Men Cota but cheat sequence is so timing specific its easier via the AR. Best part about X-Men Cota is actually getting to fight Akuma and beating him after 5 perfect rounds. He's such a beast of a competitor you feel like warrior after having just one round with him.

[davyk]

The PAL version of Athlete Kings/Decathlon also has no polygon glitching while the JP version does. However I am not sure if that is down to bug fixes or to it running at 50Hz. I should probably try the JP version on my PAL machine using the AR to see of that gets rid of the glitching.

[slicer1000]

Jul 28, 2017 21:27:16 GMT davyk said:

The PAL version of Athlete Kings/Decathlon also has no polygon glitching while the JP version does. However I am not sure if that is down to bug fixes or to it running at 50Hz. I should probably try the JP version on my PAL machine using the AR to see of that gets rid of the glitching.

I suspect the PAL version had fixes not present in the original Japanese release a quick look at Satakore.com shows this.

The budget Satakore release of Decathlete is a number of revisions up on the original release, so likely any fixes in the PAL version are included in the Satakore budget re-release. Does anyone have both the normal and Satakore release to test them side by side?

[darkman01]

Jul 28, 2017 21:08:32 GMT sych said:

Jul 28, 2017 19:16:00 GMT slicer1000 said:

The PAL PlayStation version had tons of save points compared to the PAL Saturn version,so the NTSC J Saturn version has some of those extra save pints added in then that's good to know. Maybe it's time I picked up a copy. Currently I only have the PAL version.

The Akuma code still works in the PAL version, and the arcade mode cheat is missing in both PAL and NTSC-U versions of the game, see the feature I linked too for more details.

More than just Pepsi Man, Honey had a new outfit and hidden armour break move, the gallery also got pulled in the NTSC-U version.

The Pal version of Tomb Raider is still good though just a bit more challenging. I'm on level 13 at the moment, had I not recently been obsessed with Winning Post and Iron Storm I might have completed it by now.

I know you can still access Akuma on PAL X-Men Cota but cheat sequence is so timing specific its easier via the AR. Best part about X-Men Cota is actually getting to fight Akuma and beating him after 5 perfect rounds. He's such a beast of a competitor you feel like warrior after having just one round with him.

having played both the PAL and Japanese versions of Tomb Raider Id say the PAL version certainly feels unfinished at times.. Maybe it was just because it runs at 60hz , but the Japanese version certainly felt a bit more stable (PAL TR doesn't seem properly optimized for PAL50)



Other nice thing is that it has the ability to save to the memory cartridge, wheres the PAL release is restricted to the internal memory.

[river]

This is a fascinating article, thank you for bringing my attention to it. This isn't a subject I have much to offer but I do have a somewhat interesting contribution. In the Japanese version of Saturn Bomberman the title screen has a completely different title screen (see picture below). I'm not entirely sure why this change was made but I'd opine that it's probably just an adjustment they made in the interest of appealing to differing cultural sensibilities. This was a fairly common practice in games during this era (other examples include Crash Bandicoot and Iggy's Reckin' Balls). I fully intend run through both versions of Saturn Bomberman to see if they made any other changes of a similar nature.

[tempest]

Thanks for sharing, slicer1000. That's a really interesting article.

[xDerekRx]

This is a fantastic little article. I love reading about and discovering all of these weird little things about the Saturn and regional differences.

I had no idea how many PAL versions of games lacked features or had other issues until reading this (such as the Xmen COTA, Skeleton Warriors and Clockwork Knight alterations) Was this due to games being rushed over there or things being shoehorned in for technical (50hz) purposes?

I did know about the issues with PAL Powerslave (such as lack of Death Tank and performance) as well as the Tomb Raider ones (how did he not bring this up?)

This Riven guy must read these message boards because I feel like Im the only one who has ever brought up the potential Daytona Netlink features.

I would say Doom should also have made the article as the JPN version was released later than the Western counterparts. And I swear it runs %15-20 better than the NTSC US version with the link cable support. Also I believe there 

Im still fascinated to do my own testing on a few things that he brought up in the article such the Sega Ages vol 1 differences (will need a PAL copy to see for sure). And possibly Hexen US having the secret Link Cable mode over the other versions?

[slicer1000]

I'm being a bit cheeky as I did help Riven with some of the information on the feature, as me and him go way back. I will pass on what's said on this thread as well.

We would like to add Tomb Raider based on what we've seen here, but we need to grab a Japanese copy in order to confirm what is said, even then changes are fairly minor compared to some other games.

River, be interesting to know if it's just the title screen or not that got changed for Saturn Bomberman. I suspect it's only the menu and the text but you never know.

The PAL version of COTA is either a bug or a bug fix as to why you can't play as Juggernaut, there are a few issues in the Japanese version not present in the PAL version even when run at 60hz. Powerslave & Tomb Raider on the other hand both got released first, before fixed or bonus content could be added.

Hexen has the link cable mode cheat in the PAL version also, mode doesn't work that well from my understanding.

The North American version of DOOM was released first and didn't have the link cable support, the PAL and Japanese version however both use the later code based with link support. Performance is only a touch better and not worth discussing as it's an awful port overall. The coder for the game even admitted it.

Some videos of some of the extras to go with the feature also got added by Riven:

This is Jef Jansens Winter Heat


Pepsiman from Fightng Vipers:

[digichan]

USA version of Fighters Megamix is censored from JPN/UK particularly some still shots of Honey and Tokio.
UK version of the Parodius pack, the eagles are censored and their colour change is now green feathers instead of brown.
Also the japanese version of athlete kings has an hidden additional character.
I also hear that the voices during the battles of Shining Force were dumbed down in the west but this is just a rumor and I've never looked into this.


RE Fighters Megamix
This image was changed for USA as was her name.