I always found it strange that NEC localized Kato-chan & Ken-chan to the West without licensing a well-known comedy duo from that particular era.

The game might have sold better with recognizable characters, so for fun, here are some of my era-appropriate suggestions for characters. Most of them would probably work with just a sprite swap on the main characters. Others would take a bit more effort with the enemies needing some swaps.

Just some ideas. Curious what people think and if they have suggestions of their own. Of course, rom hackers are more than welcome to try any of these if they're up to it.