Totally Rad

Totally Rad is a Mega-Man-ish action-platformer best known for its radical facelift from the unassuming Japanese title Magic John to the gnarly localization published elsewhere. Whether this change ultimately proved to be tubular or bogus is a topic of scholarly debate.

Both versions of the game would later be compiled and released internationally for the Nintendo Switch in 2025 as part of the publisher's JALECOlle Famicom Ver. line of re-releases.

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Regional DifferencesMOST EXCELLENT, DUDE!

Hidden Cheats#

There are two hidden codes. One activates a level select/sound test, while the other shows the game's credits.

Level Select#

On the title screen, press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Left, Right, Right, Start. A menu will appear allowing you to skip stages, view cutscenes, and listen to music and sound effects.

Credits#

Magic John	Totally Rad

On the title screen, press Right, Left, Left, Right, Up, Down, Down, Up on Controller 2, and then press Start on Controller 1.

While the credits work perfectly fine in Magic John, the scanline IRQ that changes the graphics bank and scrolls the credits was not moved to work with the larger logo in Totally Rad, causing the bottom of the logo to use incorrect tiles.

Unused Graphics#

Magic John	Totally Rad

Both Magic John and Totally Rad contain graphics of the player character in a "Raise the roof" pose for both kneeling and standing on one foot, but this is never used. The spellcasting animation does use a "squashed" version of the pose as an in-between frame, but the rest of the animation sees John/Jake pointing with fingers rather than raising palms.

References#