When a US release for Drill Dozer was first announced, it was titled Screw Breaker, a shortened version of its Japanese title Screw Breaker: Goushin Dorirurero.

An internal "last updated" date in the files of Drill Dozer shows that the European localizations of the game were finished in 2006, 10 years before their first release on the Wii U Virtual Console.

The US version of Drill Dozer modifies some of the unlockable generic costumes to reference (or further emphasize existing references to) different Game Freak and Nintendo games - a schoolgirl outfit being swapped for an outfit of Leaf from Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, a nurse outfit being given extra details to reference Click Medic, a futuristic outfit being replaced with a Pulseman outfit, and costumes already based on Mario and Mendel Palace being given extra details from their source material.

Despite references to Click Medic and Pulseman being added in the US version, those games had not received US releases at that point.

These changes were reverted for the European version of the game

In a Game Freak behind-the-scenes video, an unused design for Jill is shown. This version of the character lacks zippers, has uncurled ponytails that are even bigger than Jill's already large exaggerated hairstyle, wears knee-high heeled boots, has one large pocket on her hoodie-dress instead of two, lacks her drill-shaped hair tuft, wears large white ponytail holders with rabbit ears, and appears to have a single fang and wear long white gloves instead of short yellow gloves.

The choice of a young girl protagonist in Drill Dozer was decided by Ken Sugimori as he felt the juxtaposition would be more interesting than the sort of masculine character that would typically be depicted in mech-suit and vehicle-themed media.

Character designer Hironobu Yoshida was opposed to this decision because he found women to be hard to draw, and added thick, boyish eyebrows to Jill's design as a subtle form of protest.

The protagonist of Drill Dozer, Jill, is a heroic burglar who breaks into museums and fights against police officers. This detail is not mentioned in any of the game's US promotional materials, with a press release for the game simply calling Jill "not a bad girl" and claiming she destroys so many things because "she just has some issues", likely to avoid controversy.