Johnny appears on the Steel Ball Run themed stage, along with Gyro Zeppeli and Diego Brando. Where Diego can be seen ahead both of them (similiar to the end of the competition's 3rd race).
Johnny appears as a help character. His help koma provides immunity from the Speed Down status effect. He and Gyro are the only Part 7 representatives in the game as Part 7 was still ongoing at the time. Due to the game's release date coinciding with the release of SBR's first volume, Gyro appears as an actual Koma support (characters that appear on screen to perform an action and disappear) whilst Johnny is merely a help Koma, due to Gyro being the original protagonist of Part 7 at first.
Johnny is a playable character in this game and uses the "Mounted" style. Due to his paraplegia, he is very slow when not riding Slow Dancer, and must use Tusk's wormholes to move about in an efficient manner.
He is able to pick up the Corpse Parts that appear during a battle. When he gets all three, his HH gauge restoration rate increases tremendously, and he'll also receive unlimited nail bullets. His Tusk normally starts out at Act 1, and evolves when using his HHA. When in act 2 or 3, Johnny must not be on his horse in order to perform his HHA or GHA. His GHA has Tusk Act 4 pummel the opponent and rush through them with the power of the Super Spin.
If his GHA is performed on Funny Valentine, a special animation plays recreating their final battle.
A special edition version of the game was also available that included Johnny's outfit from "World of Stars and Stripes".
Usually when falling victim to certain GHA moves or other finishers, Johnny is still kneeling. However, when struck by Part 4 Josuke's GHA, Johnny is briefly seen standing (Either a result of forgetting to program a different animation for Johnny or Crazy Diamond actually healing Johnny's spine and legs) before Josuke pummels him back to his old crippled self.
Trivia
He is only shown smiling five times.[citation needed]
Johnny is the only Joestar in the entire series to have naturally blond hair.
Johnny is the only JoJo protagonist with a blood-related sibling. (Unlike Giorno, who has 3 half-brothers)
In the first chapter, his name is written in Japanese as "ジョニー", whereas from the second chapter on, it is written as "ジョニィ". Both have the same pronunciation, however.
Interestingly enough, when Johnny and Gyro shared their most important secrets to each other, Johnny had revealed that he had Formicophilia, aka a fetish for a person with bug bites.
Johnny's name might be a reference of Chuck Berry's song Johnny B. Goode: an evidence of this could be the fact that in Chapter 30 of Steel Ball Run, Gyro prompts Johnny to run several times by shouting "Go, Johnny, go!" like in the song's chorus. Whether this was intentional, however, is not known.
Johnny's and Jonathan's deaths are similar, as both of them die at a young age and neither of them were buried in their home land.
Furthermore, both Johnny and Jonathan's deaths involved decapitation, or the removal/destruction of the head, whilst attempting to protect one of their loved ones.
He and Jolyne are the only two JoJos who did not defeat the final villain of their respective series. However, Johnny defeated Valentine, the main antagonist of Steel Ball Run, unlike Jolyne, who was killed by Pucci.
In the popular pixel avatar site Gaia online, there is an obtainable item know as Roto's Hat. This item's second pose allows the avatar of the site to wear a hat identical to Johnny's, cleverly named Joey's hat. There is also an item called K.O. Star, one of the poses of which allows you to wear gloves similar to the Roto Hat's second pose. There is a secret pose which allows you to shoot fingernail bullets, as well.
