DJ Boy - Fight an obese black woman and a male stripper to save your true love!

It seems like everyone in the late 80's/early 90's did all their fighting on roller skates. I mean, the idea of this game has certainly been done before so surely roller skater-on-roller skater violence must have been a rampant issue back then, there's simply no way to explain otherwise! What we got here is yet another in the beat-em-up genre, and while it's definitely no Sengoku 3, it does have that quirky style that draws me in just like Bravoman. It is also very racist! Why? Read on.

DJ Boy was released in the states in 1990 by Kaneko for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive, it's also a solitary experience in that it features no multi-player at all so those looking to grab a buddy for a beat-em-up adventure will simply have to play something else.  The main character of our story is Donald J. Boy aka DJ Boy, he participates in a fight-race known as a "rollergame" (where have I heard that before?) while simultaneously trying to save his girlfriend Maria from the "Dark Knights" gang who also happen to be participating in the contest.  The "Dark Knights" must be an equal opportunity gang, because they have no qualms hiring a flatulent obese black woman or a flamboyant Chippendale wanna-be to mess you up.  They even have an evil twin of DJ Boy!  The Japanese version gets a few extra cut-scenes which were cut out in the English versions because they were probably too "manga"-like for any English speaker to appreciate.  Of course it's not like the story is very important here. In fact I'd almost claim it's non-existent if it wasn't for the text in the finale.

You start the game perpetually moving to the right via roller-skates in a fight-race dodging incoming punches from advancing enemies and obstacles in front you.  You must learn how to control your skating speed and time your punches and kicks perfectly to stop anyone in front of you as well as behind you.  Every now and then, everyone will stop advancing forward and you get to move around freely to fight those who have been harassing you up until that point.  Enemies will drop coins which can be used to buy upgrades in the shop between stages, so this plays out a bit like River City Ransom.  Combat is pretty shallow for a beat-em-up as there's no real combos to mess around with, but it's pretty forgiving as you're going to be worried about dodging that traffic cone more so than chaining attacks on the fat kid advancing behind you.

You won't see her in the U.S version.

It should be noted that the Japanese and English versions are quite different from each other.  In Japan, the first boss of the game is a fat black woman who uses farts as a projectile attack.  She has stereotypically huge red lips and when you defeat her she will comically falls down revealing her undergarments.  In the English version, her skin color is changed to pink and instead of farting she will throw pies at you.  Amusingly enough, her black portrait is still kept in the cut scene afterwards with DJ Boy standing proudly for beating up a fat lady.  They also took the resident black kid and white-washed him as well so DJ Boy wouldn't be committing a hate crime.  Amusingly enough, however, they kept the male stripper in the English version, and not only that but they also added in billboards that focus on the bikini area of a woman.  So they removed one offensive aspect of the game, and added in some fan service.  Fair trade?  Eh, not really, that black lady was pretty funny in my opinion.  Also, most of the levels are revamped in the English version to make it more difficult than it's Japanese counter-part, and if that doesn't bother you then I think you should know that you only get one life to complete the game!  Good luck!

This game is really short, you can beat it in an hour or less!  While the game seems difficult at start, you'll be learning from your mistakes and you'll always play a little bit better each time.  Really, this game has that 90s style that I seem to enjoy so much and some absolutely wacky boss fights, that male stripper was really tough!  If you want a mildly racist good time you should find the Japanese version and play that one, if you want a more hardcore experience with some fan-service then you would want  to get the English version.  Or, you can just pass because this game isn't really that spectacular.  Have a good weekend!