Play as a giant, floating samurai head sent to defend the United States against the alien Darc Seed, who crashed to Earth in a meteorite and is turning the American people into zombies. Hola, Japan!
Sub-Page#
Unused Graphics#
Apparently an earlier version of the title screen had "SAMURAI" misspelled as "SAMRAI". The original misspelled word still exists in the title screen graphics; the corrected version was merely tacked onto the end and the tilemap updated to match.
Sound Test#
For the US version, press and hold Up + A + B at the copyright screen and wait until the next screen appears. Since the Japanese version lacks a copyright screen, you must hold the buttons as you power on the console.
The sound test has two "channels", both of which can be set to play any music track or sound effect. Select a channel with Left or Right, change the value with Up or Down, and press A or B to play the corresponding channel (select track 00, "Hevi & Nak", to silence the channel). Note that you can technically play two music tracks at the same time, though it doesn't quite work as you might expect: channel B always has priority over channel A, except for percussion and DPCM samples.
CRC Test#
Hold Up + Left + A + B on second controller and press Reset.
Special Round Select#
Power on the console then press Reset 25 times, at the title screen now press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Start. "Special Round Select" menu will appear. Here you can select any stage to start with, any boss fight, jump straight to the ending or the Map Test mode in the "EDIT MODE" option.
CHR Test#
In the Special Round Select mode, put the cursor on the "EDIT MODE" option, hold A + B then press Start. A CHR Test will appear instead of the Map Test mode.
Hidden Text#
The game's initialization code checks for the presence of the string "Prg.K_Hiramatsu" in RAM to differentiate between soft and hard resets. Kunihito Hiramatsu is listed as the game's programmer in the credits.
Regional Differences#
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General Differences#
- The original Japanese version lacked the rapid fire feature.
Visual Differences#
The title screen originally featured the silhouette of the tengu mask. This was changed to have a 侍 (samurai) kanji in the background, in addition to centering the "Press Start" text and the copyright dates.
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In the Japanese version, the player character is a tengu mask, so there is lack of a "head of the samurai" joke. This also allows for a historical joke regarding Namakubi (生首, namakubi, lit. "severed head") being a stand-in for the decapitated Taira no Masakado. Masakado is often stated to have become a vengeful spirit, often in search of his body after it was burried separately from his head.
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The Statue of Liberty's crown was changed into a tangle of snakes, ala Medusa. Her color scheme was also altered to better resemble how she actually appears.
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