Kid Niki: Radical Ninja (Arcade)

Kid Niki: Radical Ninja
Also known as: Kaiketsu Yanchamaru (JP) Developer: Irem Publishers: Irem (JP), Data East (US) Platform: Arcade (Irem M62 hardware) Released in JP: December 1986 Released in US: March 1987 This game has unused graphics. This game has regional differences.

Kid Niki is a Radical Ninja from the eighties. When he's not skateboarding in Cali or chowing down on a pineapple and ham pizza, he's busy grooving to the latest cuts from Queen and waging a war on drugs and inner-city gang violence.

Unused Graphics

A word balloon in the same style as the ones used by the Round 6 boss. 手 translates as "Hand", though it could also be part of an indeterminate compound word.

(Translation: Joe)

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Regional Differences

Before coming to overseas audience, Kid Niki underwent some serious radification.

Player

Japan	International

The most notable and obvious change was done to the player character. Yanchamaru has a topknot and a relatively neat hairstyle compared to the gnarly mess that is Kid Niki's 'do.

Title

Japan	International

The Japanese game has 8-character high score names, as well as a default set of names. The international game has 3-character names and a high score table that's blank by default.

Japan	International

The game's totally tubular backstory is only present in the international game.

Round Intro

Japan	International

The round intro in the Japanese version is very plain, only giving the name of the boss. The international versions add more text, the boss' sprite, and the current player.

Round	Japan	International
Round 1	VS OTAFUKU TAROU	LAND OF THE TREES KILL "DEATH BREATH"
Round 2	VS JIZOU KOZOU	LAND OF STONE BUDDHAS DEFEAT "SPIKE"
Round 3	VS ZOUSHOKU MUSUME	LAND OF THE CLIFFS DESTROY "HORNED WITCH"
Round 4	VS OTEMO MUKADE	CASTLE OF GROTE GREEN GRUB DESTROY EACH SECTION WITH SWORD
Round 5	VS SEKKYOU OSHOU	FOREST OF MAD MONKS TURN "BIG BALDY" TO STONE
Round 6	VS KABUTO BUSHI	AT THE CASTLE GATE KILL GUARD WHEN SPEAR IS DOWN
Round 7	VS ZOURINGEN	BATTLE THE "STONE WIZARD" FREE PRINCESS MARGO
Round 8	ZOURINGEN NIGETA!	YOU HAVE TRAPPED THE WIZARD FINISH HIM OFF

Other Graphics

Japan	International

The masked enemies have more distinct / less angry eyes in the international game.

Japan	International

The humanoid bosses' exclamation of pain changed from "Ooh" to "Ouch!". The international graphic had to be expanded to make the text fit.

Japan	International

Sekkyou Oshou/Big Baldy's unique method of attacking had to be changed. Both the word balloon and voice clips were redone.

Japan	International

While the graphic wasn't translated (it's an exclamation used for scolding a practitioner of Zen, so it doesn't really have a direct English translation), the voice clip was. Hopefully he's saying "cough." (喝 is pronounced 'katsu')

(Kanji explanation: divingkataetheweirdo)

Japan	International

The last of the Big Baldy changes. The text in the word balloon is only red in the Japanese version.

Other Text

Round Clear

Japan	International
AHA, YOU HAVE DONE IT VERY WELL.	GOOD JOB KID NIKI THE ADVENTURE GOES ON

This isn't very radical, but it is more coherent.

Final Round Clear

Japan	International
I MADE IT! I DEFEATED HIM AT LAST.	YOU MADE IT! YOU DEFEATED THE STONE WIZARD!

The international text is no longer in the first-person.

Ending

Japan	International
THANKS TO YOU. PEACE RETURNED TO OUR CASTLE. WE SHALL REMEMBER YOU FOREVER. THANK YOU YANCHAMARU. SEE YOU AGAIN.	THANKS TO YOUR AWESOME NINJA SKILLS PEACE HAS RETURNED TO OUR CASTLE ONCE AGAIN. WE WILL REMEMBER YOU FOREVER KID NIKI! YOU ARE ONE RAD DUDE!

In addition to the increased radicalosity, the international ending's text is also formatted a whole lot better.

Other Changes

• The international versions added mid-stage checkpoints, whereas the Japanese version forced you back to the beginning of the level upon death. The NES/Famicom port had the same mid-stage checkpoints in all regions.

(Source: Original TCRF research)