Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy

Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy TAS "1 player" in 12:17.78

Run details

• Emulator used: BizHawk 2.9.1
• Takes damage to save time
• Aims for fastest time
• Uses only 1 player (Cathy is actually faster than Roddy)
• Luck manipulation (boss patterns)
• Plays on hardest difficulty (Level 8)

Comments

• This is my first Arcade TAS submitted on the site! Quite a nice and good update to a game that has not been visited in over a decade. Happy about this and more Arcade runs to come!
• This game looks similar in gameplay to Metal Slug series, which was also developed by SNK for Neo Geo, In this game, you play as one or two players, however, you don't get to choose the character, and always Roddy will be player 1 and Cathy as player 2. I chose Cathy instead of Roddy due to her sliding being faster, allowing for fast travel.
• This run is actually 42 seconds faster than current [1773M|2 players published run] by X2poet. This came down to the fact that Roddy slows down Cathy in many places! This leads to a bit slower travelling, however, I do lose a lot of time in many boss fights due to not having two attacks from both players. The most notable place where 2 players matter is the fire planet boss fight where I required an extra cycle and also the final boss rush.
• The movement and attack sets are both the same if we compare both players, you can slide by pressing Down, Down + Right, B (in this sequence), or perform a Hadouken by pressing Down, Down + Right, A (in this sequence). These two are the main ways to travel faster and beat bosses quickly enough. Other abilities are rarely useful but sometimes I used them to by stylistic! Refer to [3059S|X2poet's submission] for other abilities.

Special thanks

• Goes to X2poet for his 2 players run. I did learn quite a few strategies from it and it surely helped me create this run.
• And you as always for watching!