The premise of the home console game: A young man named Donald J. Boy is a roller fighter taking part of an ultimate fight-race known as "Rollergame", taking place in Cigaretch City, located on the outskirts of New York City. Many people were excited to see DJ Boy, but a roller fighter gang known as the Dark Knights want him out of the competition. Their leader, Heavy-Met Tony, calls his gang to kidnap his girlfriend Maria, who also comes into town and defeat DJ Boy. DJ Boy must rescue Maria, defeat the Dark Knights, and win the Rollergame competition in one adventure. The arcade plot tells a different story. Two rollerskaters named Bob & Tom were breakdancing to the beat of their boombox, until it got stolen from rollerskater thieves, in which they must find and defeat them in order to retrieve what is rightfully theirs. DJ Boy 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.
Differences between arcade and home versions
The original Japanese home 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 their western releases. For example, the stage 1 boss was an overweightblack woman who attacked by farting. When the player hit Big Mama a certain number of times, she would temporarily drop to the ground head first and show off her white frilly bloomers underneath her dress and then force herself up again. The arcade versions of the game featured two incarnations of "Big Mama" in the same game, one with light brown skin and another with pink skin. The home console ports gave her dark brown skin and bright red lips in the original Japanese port. The arcade version had the character "fart" occasionally simply as a character animation. The home versions turned it into a kind of "fart fireball" attack that did damage. For the subsequent home release in North America and abroad, multiple changes were made. For example, Big Mama now has neon pink skin and, instead of farting, threw doughnut-like pastries at the player. The second encounter had her with tan skin in a martial arts outfit. Other change included is a male stripper character simply appearing in his "Chippendales" outfit from the start, rather than beginning as a homeless looking man who sheds his outer garments to fight as in the Japanese version. Another change was the substitution of Japanese text featured on in-game billboards with images of scantily clad women ; this appears to be the same type of "Are you covered?" scantily clad woman joke that was featured in Konami's Crime Fighters, another arcade fighting game. The home version added cutscenes in which DJ Boy insults his defeated foes. Other alterations include turning the "robot clown" characters into bosses rather than normal enemies, eliminating some of the "homeless guy/stripper" regular enemies, and featuring a boss that was an "evil twin" of DJ Boy. The Disk Jockey was Demon Kogure in the Japanese arcade version. However, in the North American and PAL arcade versions, the Disk Jockey was Wolfman Jack, though the in-game sprite is still Demon Kogure. In the home versions, the Disk Jockeys were removed due to memory limitations. The arcade versions had a two player simultaneous mode, with each player controlling a "DJ Boy" with slightly differently colored clothing, but the home versions did not. Mega placed the Mega Drive version at #4 in their list of the 10 Worst Mega Drive Games of All Time.
''B.Rap Boys''
In 1992, a sequel, B.Rap Boys, was produced containing similar designs and content. The game features three player simultaneous action using characters that are different from one another, and the optional use of weapons and vehicles, as well as a more robust fighting system. The game's soundtrack was notable for having extensively sampled studio recordings from hip-hop group 3 Stories High. In Japan, Game Machine listed B.Rap Boys on their August 1, 1992 issue as being the thirteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the year.
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed DJ Boy on their October 15, 1989 issue as being the seventh most-successful table arcade unit of the year. Entertainment Weekly compared the US release to the Japanese version, and wrote that "D.J. Boy still does battle with an enormous black woman, only here she's a few shades lighter and no longer has a fondness for flatulence. Kaneko USA: ' were looking for input, and obviously they got it from the wrong people.'"
