DJ Boy is a 1989 beat ’em up arcade video game developed by Kaneko. It was published in Japan by Kaneko and in North America by Sammy. DJ Boy, also known as DJ Kid, was partially based on the hip hop culture of the U.S. cities. Many of the characters ride around on roller skates rather than walking or running.

Plot

The premise of the home console game: A young man named Donald J. Boy (DJ 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 (the two playable characters) were breakdancing to the beat of their boombox, until it got stolen from rollerskater thieves (possibly the Dark Knights), in which they must find and defeat them in order to retrieve what is rightfully theirs.

Gameplay

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 home version, the arcade simply tallied these as points). 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.

Ports

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 month.^[4] In North America, it was the top-grossing software conversion kit on the RePlay arcade charts in May 1990.^[5] 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: ‘[The Japanese programmers] were looking for input, and obviously they got it from the wrong people.'”^[6]

Legacy

In 1992, a sequel, B.Rap Boys (Ｂラップボーイズ), was produced containing similar designs and content. The game features three player simultaneous action using characters that are different from one another (rather than palette swaps), 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 month.^[11]

References

1. ^ MegaTech rating, EMAP, issue 6, page 77, June 1992
2. ^ DJ Boy Review. United Kingdom: Imagine Publishing. August 1992. p. 40.
3. ^ “DJ Boy Console XS Review”. Console XS. United Kingdom: Paragon Publishing (1): 129. June 1992. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
4. ^ “Game Machine’s Best Hit Games 25 – テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)”. Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 366. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 October 1989. p. 25.
5. ^ “RePlay: The Players’ Choice”. RePlay. Vol. 15, no. 8. May 1990. p. 4.