Regional differences [WIP]
The game has been released in 3 different regions, NTSC-U, NTSC-J and PAL. All of them have their own differences between themselves, and we will compare all regions in the instances where any game version differs from the rest.
Initial credit funds
Region
|
Amount of credits
|
PAL/NTSC-U |
18.000 |
NTSC-J |
15.000 |
NTSC-J is basically a harder NTSC-U version, and here's one of the reasons why that's the case: the credits you get upon starting the game. If we take into account the Mazda MX-5 '93's price, we can see that the best initial car cannot be bought, meaning that your initial car must be another one by force.
License tests
B license
Region
|
Differences
|
NTSC-U/NTSC-J
|
-
|
PAL
|
Stricter times overall
|
A license
Region
|
Differences
|
NTSC-U/NTSC-J
|
-
|
PAL
|
Stricter times overall
|
IB license
Region
|
Differences
|
NTSC-U/NTSC-J
|
Harder IB-6 gold time requirement
|
PAL
|
-
|
IA license
Region
|
Differences
|
NTSC-U/NTSC-J
|
Harder IA-4 gold time requirement
|
PAL
|
Stricter times overall
|
S license
Region
|
Differences
|
NTSC-U/NTSC-J
|
-
|
PAL
|
Stricter times overall
|
R license
Region
|
Differences
|
NTSC-U/NTSC-J
|
-
|
PAL
|
Easier times overall
|
Events prizes
Region
|
Differences
|
PAL/NTSC-U |
- |
NTSC-J |
Less credits given per victory overall
|
Like we just mentioned in the "Initial credits fund" section, NTSC-J is basically a harder version of NTSC-U. In this case we will omit listing all of the events, but to make it clear, the japanese version of the game gives you way less money for every event completed, meaning that you must be more conservative with your purchases, specially during the early and mid-game.
Time trials
Circuit
|
NTSC-U/NTSC-J
|
PAL
|
Midfield Raceway |
1:25.533 |
1:24.993 |
Trial Mountain |
1:47.968 |
1:49.025 |
Tokyo Route 246 |
2:02.270 |
2:02.330 |
Deep Forest Raceway |
1:25.350 |
1:26.360 |
Laguna Seca |
1:22.716 |
1:23.178 |
Apricot Hill Raceway |
1:17.447 |
1:18.558 |
Grand Valley Speedway |
1:48.795 |
1:49.453 |
Swiss Alps |
1:23.104 |
1:23.703 |
Tahiti Maze |
1:59.459 |
1:59.964 |
Complex String
|
4:52.716 |
4:49.869 |
As we can see, for the most part, PAL times tend to be easier than the NTSC counterpart, with a big exception, Complex String. This actually makes the time trials way easier to complete in NTSC, since the last time trial is considered to be the harder one to beat by a long stretch.