Top Hunter Impressions: Stretchy Grabby

Jan. 5 10:56 AM by Sardius

Neo Geo games face an uphill battle on the Virtual Console. They lack the brand name recognition of competing titles, and at $9 each, I'd imagine that few people would be willing to take a gamble on a game that they've never heard of. It's not like anyone's going to look at the VC's Neo Geo lineup and say, "Oh hey, Blue's Journey! I remember paying $250 for that ten years ago, but what the hell, I'll buy it again. I hate money!"

Top Hunter suffers in the same way. The good news, at least, is that it's one of the Neo Geo's few offerings that isn't a 2D one-on-one fighter. It's a side-scrolling platformer that features a Bionic Commando-like grappling gimmick and a heavy focus on beating people up. Normally, anything even superficially related to Bionic Commando would make me immediately start foaming at the mouth, but I had my doubts.

Top Hunter really isn't bad, for what it is. It's got all the big, detailed, cartoony sprites you'd expect from a mid-'90s arcade platformer, and it plays decently enough. The game's main draw is its grappling system, which allows you to stretch out your arms and grab anything within your reach. This includes enemies, so you'll spend much of the game latching onto the nearest bad guy and using him to bowl over a crowd of his buddies. You'll also use your stretchy limbs to pull switches and yank chains for bonus items.

The platforming itself has its share of twists, too. Each level plays out on two planes of action, and you can press a button to jump between the foreground and background at any time, often to dodge enemies or to reap bonuses from each side. This adds a nice little bit of strategy, and allows for more defensive play if you don't feel like plowing through enemies in a straight line.

Top Hunter's a good game. Trouble is, it's not good enough to make it stand out among other Virtual Console releases. Despite its grappling gimmick, there's nothing monumentally amazing here that would make it worth nine bucks. It's the kind of game you could drop a quarter into and walk away entirely satisfied. And as much as I like a good majority of the Neo Geo's library (excluding the one-on-one fighters), Top Hunter never really grabbed my attention in the way that other games like, say, SpinMaster or Magician Lord did.

You may feel differently, though, especially if you love straightforward arcade-style platformers. Here's a video that might help you decide whether it's worth your money or not. I'm personally saving my Points for something like Windjammers or Viewpoint.

Comments

I think it's worth mentioning that there's much more to this game than just grabbing enemies with extendo-arms. There's a plethora of hidden moves to use in the game too! The rapid punches (or rapid kicks for Cahty) are easy enough to figure out by mashing the attack button, but the rest all require fighting-game motions. Down to Forward + attack throws a fireball, and Forward, Down, Down-Forward + attack does a dragon punch-type move... who woulda thunk it? But then you've also got things like slide kicks and other charging attacks. As you pick up more Powerups, the effects of each move change slightly, making you able to plow through enemies even easier (until you get hit and lose the Powerup, that is). And what I think is the coolest thing about all these hidden moves, is that they're throwbacks to moves from characters in other Neo-Geo fighters. That rapid punch/kick move? It's Ryo Sakazaki's Zanrestu-Ken for Roddy, or Robert Garcia's Genei-Kyaku for Cathy! And then you've also got things like Terry Bogard's Power Wave and Burn Knuckle in there too. Unfortunately the average player won't notice these things (if they even figure out how to do the moves in the first place), but for me it adds a lot of personality to the game. It's such a cool touch to see things like this in a platformer, it adds a lot of variety to the gameplay.

...and variety is needed since this is a fairly long game by arcade platformer standards, so it does get rather repetitive at times (especially when you have to fight that pirate boss over and over). But I still think it's a really cool and underappreciated game that deserves a fair shot. I don't know how many people will want to take the 900 point plunge, but I'm happy to see it accessible to a wider audience.

 

This game does actually seem pretty cool, and I really like what BBH mentioned with the special moves. I guess it'll be like Sardius says, a title for people who know what it is and might have already enjoyed it at some point.

 

I personally found Top Hunter quite enjoyable, and I never even knew about the special moves (thanks, BBH--I'll have to give them a try). The game puts a unique spin on the arcade brawler formula. It's a bit like the way Toejam & Earl was described as a Roguelike--it's the same basic principle, but you approach it in a very different manner.

The way I see it, it's one of the best brawlers on the VC right now. Sure, if you go into the shop seeking nostalgia, you're going to snap up Streets of Rage and forget about it. Playing both of these games today, however, I'd probably have to say I enjoy Top Hunters more. Don't get me wrong, Streets of Rage was a fantastic brawler back in the day, but I played dozens of games just like it throughout the '90s. That's plenty enough play to wear such a simple (albeit fun) premise pretty thin. Top Hunter, on the other hand, remains a relatively fresh experience.

 

Man, I didn't know about all of the special moves either. I figured out the fireball and the stomp that lets you bounce off of peoples' heads (which is even more awesome when you're powered up), but that's it. I might have to go back to this one.

 

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