Global Champion

Global Champion
Also known as: Kaiser Knuckle (Europe, Japan) Developer: Taito Publisher: Taito Platform: Arcade (Taito F3 hardware) Released internationally: 1994 This game has regional differences.

Global Champion, known outside the US as Kaiser Knuckle, is Taito's first proper 2D one-on-one fighting game. Dino Rex doesn't count, sorry.

A sequel named Dan-Ku-Ga was never released despite having an almost-perfect prototype version (futurely leaked) already made.

Regional Differences

Global Champion and the World version of Kaiser Knuckle all share these changes from the Japanese version of Kaiser Knuckle.

Character Select Screen

Kaiser Knuckle (Japan)	Global Champion / Kaiser Knuckle (World)

Kazuya, Lihua and Liza had their faces redrawn for outside of Japan.

Medic

At the end of a match in the Japanese version of Kaiser Knuckle, a medic will rush on-screen to check the defeated character, offering a diagnosis as part of the end-of-fight score tally. All of this was removed from international versions.

Test Mode

Kaiser Knuckle (Japan)	Kaiser Knuckle (World)	Global Champion

The Test Mode in each version has different options. Both the World version of Kaiser Knuckle and Global Champion add the following options to the ones seen in the Japanese Kaiser Knuckle:

• Blood Mode: Add blood effects to every hit.
• Game Speed: Alter the speed of the game (as opposed to the timer).
• Control: Switch between 6 Trigger and 5 Trigger- 6 Trigger is the same as the Japanese Kaiser Knuckle, but 5 Trigger replaces Strong Punch and Kick with Block buttons. You must hold this button to block instead of holding back as in 6 Trigger mode. This changes several other mechanics too- you now have to press Light and Medium attacks together for Strong attacks, and the universal dive attacks cannot be performed.
• BGM: Toggle the background music on or off.

Global Champion also adds one more:

• Continue: Set whether more credits are needed to continue or if it costs the same as a normal game.

Other Changes

• The super meter is the CRUSH meter in Japan, and the POWER meter elsewhere.
• The Japanese version contains text in the attract mode intro and after General is defeated at the end of the game. All this was omitted from international versions.
• The character intros that appear after selecting your character and your first opponent are not in the international versions.
• Lihua does not speak on the versus screen in the international version.

(Source: tepidsnake)