Al Unser Jr. Turbo Racing

Al Unser Jr. Turbo Racing
Also known as: World Grand Prix: Pole to Finish (JP), Turbo Racing (EU) Developer: Data East Publisher: Data East Platform: NES Released in JP: January 31, 1989 Released in US: March 1990 Released in EU: 1991 This game has unused music. This game has regional differences. This game has a bugs page

To do: Check if the US/European versions have leftovers from the Japanese version.

Regional Differences

The Japanese version contains more anime-ish graphics.

The European version has no connection to Unser, probably due to lack of name recognition there. All references to him were removed, resulting in many text and graphical changes.

Title Screen

Japan	US	Europe

• The Japanese version's title screen is a 3D model of the racetrack.
• In the staff roll in the Japanese version, some of the developers have serial numbers in parentheses.
• The Japanese version features the DECO (Data East Corporation) logo, while the international versions just have the Data East (DE) logo.
• As per usual with games released in North America and Europe, the US version mentions Nintendo of America while the European version simply says "Licensed by Nintendo".
• The Japanese and European versions copyright the game to "Data East Corp.", while the US version copyrights it to "Data East USA, Inc."
• The Japanese and US versions have a 1988 copyright date (despite being released in '89 and '90 respectively), with the European version finally updating it to 1991.
• The front car on the US version has the Valvoline logo on the hood and "VALVOLINE" written on the spoiler. The European version changes it to the Data East logo and "DATA EAST", respectively.
• The Japanese version has an exclamation point for "PRESS START".

Main Menu

Japan	US	Europe

The Japanese version has little descriptions underneath the options:

Japanese	English
TIME TRIAL MODE A （他のマシンを かわしながら 走ります。４Ｐまで。） TIME TRIAL MODE B （他のマシンは走らない フリー走行。４Ｐまで。） WORLD GRAND-PRIX SERIES （１６レースを 走り チャンピオンをめざします！）	TIME TRIAL MODE A (Run while avoiding other machines. Up to 4P.) TIME TRIAL MODE B (Free running without other machines. Up to 4P.) WORLD GRAND-PRIX SERIES (Run 16 races and aim for the champion!)

• The images of the vehicles on the lower-right part of the screen have been changed between all versions. For some reason, the European version's vehicle has some of the lower half cut off.
• The international versions have different shades in its text, while the Japanese version sticks to a flat color for all the text.

Advice

US	Europe

The international versions add this screen for each race where the player is given advice by Little Al, or the generic racer in the European version. The upper-left graphics were also redrawn.

Congratulations Screen

Japan	US	Europe

The Japanese version has completely different cutscenes from the international versions. The Europe version reskinned the player character from Al Unser Jr. in his Valvoline uniform to a generic racer with a Data East uniform. Also, the woman in the Next Race cutscene was given a pair of shades in the European version, which makes it much cooler than the American version. The international versions also add a comma between "CONGRATULATIONS" and the driver's name.

Also, in the "Bad" Next Race screens, in the Japanese version the girl's shirt has the names of the developers: (Ken) "FUKAKI" and "AK AKIRA KANDA".

After-Race Cutscenes

After the Congratulations screen, these scenes appear in the Japanese version. They were removed from the international versions. A special song plays here for each cutscene, which is not used in any other part of the game, which would explain why the international versions have two unused songs while the Japanese version has none.

Bad Ending

Japan	US/Europe

The Japanese version has a picture of the driver moping while the international versions just give you a plain-text ending. The international versions are exactly the same as one another.

Good Ending

The international versions' endings were watered down compared to the Japanese version.

Japan	US	Europe

Driver Names

To do: Get the names.

Each version of the game has different driver names.

Track Ordering

To do: Document this.

The order of circuits is different between versions.

Music

The Japanese version features a completely different soundtrack. While some of the songs in the Japanese version did make it into the international versions, the songs have been transposed to a different, and/or with parts of the song removed.The soundtrack can be found here.

Unused Music

To do: Upload music.

The international versions removed two cutscenes that show sometimes after you complete a race. As a result, these two songs go unused. However, they were arranged differently than the Japanese version.