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.
