My zeal towards dark-horse, obscure games is made clear throughout this site, yes? But on this
page in particular. For here, I document my interesting findings on a game called "Dynamite
Headdy".
Dynamite Headdy is made by Treasure, a company often praised for the quality of its games.
(Which are also questioned for their innate weirdness.) They make a lot of shoot-'em-ups, but
they occasionally venture into the platform and even fighting genres. Dynamite Headdy is a
testament to weirdness. It involves a puppet trying to save the world he lives in from an evil
puppetmaster. This game leaves you with the question, "Is the whole storyline just a play? Or
is this a real occurence?" Well, it left me with that question, anyways...
I played the Japanese version, just expecting the text to be in Japanese. Imagine my surprise
when whole SPRITES were changed...
Here we see Headdy's recurring archenemy of the game, Trouble Bruin. Notice the narrowed eyes
and the brown fur. However, upon playing the Japanese version, I found myself faced with the
right figure, bearing slightly longer limbs, a smile, WIDE OPEN eyes, and purple fur. I was
simply AMAZED yes. Apparently, his name is also changed, and it's in Japanese - Maruyama.
Don't ask me what that means, though. As far as I can guess, 'maru' is something with a
negative connotation and 'uyama' has something to do with bears or teddy bears. Knowing that
his name is Maruyama also explains something of his background theme, in which we hear both the
word 'uyama' and 'kuma' (meaning bear) repeated.
A boss in stage, what is it, 3-1 I think? "Terminate Her Too" in the English version, "South
City" I think in the Japanese. I can't remember the English name of this boss and never saw
the Japanese name of it, but as you can see, the boss was radically changed between versions.
Originally it was a giant doll. But with SUPER SPRITE PROGRAM MAGIC it was a big robot in the
English version. Wonder what that's all about?
Stage 7-1, or was it 6-1?, called "Headdy In Wonderland" in the English version and "Paradise?"
in the Japanese version. In the original version, this tall lady with a kimono attacks you
while having keys thrown into a container on her back. When all the keys are thrown in, she
falls off-screen..... only to return as the psycho version on the right. But in the English
version, she too was changed into a robot called "Gatekeeper" who also takes the keys and also
goes psycho.
One last note that doesn't have to do with sprites... Headdy's female counterpart, seen stealing
the keys constantly throughout the game, and who is throwing them into the previously shown boss
(I presume to gain access to King Dark Demon's castle), is named Heather in the English version,
probably to look similar to Headdy's name. But in the original version, her name reflected her
design... Fingy. Notice how unlike Headdy, Heather / Fingy's head isn't floating above her
body? Also notice that her hands, however, are detached in that way? If you noticed these two
things, it shouldn't be too hard to determine why she's called Fingy, ha ha.
And that's all I have on this for now. These changes seemed really weird and unnecessary. I
wonder why they were made? Anyway, they don't decrease the fun this game has to offer. Just
food for thought.