Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy

Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy is a side scrolling arcade platform game.

Story
The game is set in a futuristic setting where intergalactic space traveling is a popular innovation for people on Earth. The two protagonists are space bounty hunters who hunt pirates and gangs between two different planets, Earth and Aster.

Gameplay
Top Hunter is a sidescrolling action game. Player 1 controls Roddy and Players 2 controls Cathy, who can jump, punch enemies, extend their limbs to grab enemies or pull chains, and perform a variety of special moves with joystick motions, in a manner similar to most fighting games. The player can also throw objects, use guns, or hijack large bipedal walkers during the levels. Each levels end with a boss that must be defeated to complete the stage.

Similar to Fatal Fury , Top Hunter features a plane-jumping system: the game field is divided in two lanes between the background and foreground, which the player can jump between at any time to attack enemies or avoid traps. The two fields are not always at the same elevation and one of them may be blocked off at certain points.

At the beginning of the game, the player can choose between four different world (Forest, Wind, Ice, and Fire). After all of the initial worlds are completed, the game moves to the final stage on Captain Klapton's battleship.

Version differences
The Japanese version has five secret endings unlocked by finishing off one of the boss in the final stage's boss rush with a specific special move, followed by defeating Klapton with a special move too. A fifth "special" ending is unlocked by defeating all five bosses in this manner. This was removed from the western versions.

The four starting planets have three levels each. In MVS mode, the player plays through two stages of each world; the first planet selected will have the first stage, then the third, and every subsequent planet will have the player play through the second stage, then the third. On the AES and CD versions, the player through all three levels of each planet.

Like many games on the system, the Neo Geo CD version features a rearranged redbook audio soundtrack.

Cameo Appearances & Potential Influences/References
In King of Fighters 94, Roddy can be seen in the Mexico Stage somewhere in the top left corner of the background. In King of Fighters 2001, both Roddy and Cathy can both be seen in the China Stage.

In Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, The Robo Vehicle viewable for display in one of the stages. Other vehicles that can be seen are the TZ-024 ship from Last Resort, and Syd-FX ship from Alpha Mission and Alpha Mission II.

Top Hunter also predates Eiichiro Oda's One Piece by three years. Roddy has stretchy arms which are similar in style to Monkey D. Luffy's Gum Gum Devil Fruit Powers; i.e. Gum Gum Pistol (holding down A to stretch the arm), and Gum Gum Gatling (Splash Aura-the rapid fire attack by pressing A). Cathy's Chain Saucer is also similar to Cyborg Franky's Strong Right ability, as both are attached by chains. Two years prior to the release of Top Hunter & Cathy, Eiichiro Oda created a One-Shot called "Wanted". A series of short stories-one of which featuring the rubber man: Luffy.

The design of the Brutes have big resemblances to the Sky Pirates from the Hiyao Miyazaki film: Castle In The Sky, only being that their heads are bigger, and they are mainly mass-produced Androids by the Klapton Forces for invasion purposes.

Characters

 * Roddy (Player 1)
 * Cathy (Player 2)

Klapton Forces

 * Grunt
 * Brute
 * Thug
 * Guarder
 * Snow Gorilla
 * Armadillo
 * Neaderthal

Commanders

 * Sly (Boss of the Forest Planet)
 * Misty (Boss of the Ice Planet)
 * Mr. Bigman (Boss of the Wind Planet)
 * Dr. Burn (Boss of the Fire Planet)
 * Captain Klapton (Final Boss)