In-depth character discussion: Roo

[BareknuckleRoo]

Roo is sort of an underrated character and I was asked to make this thread, so here goes. I mean, he doesn't seem to be popular for playthroughs of either SoR3 or SoRR if Youtube videos are anything to go by, and I think he's underrated in terms of usefulness, at least in SoRR anyways. He is, however, very awkward to play because of his reliance on a few key moves. It's also important to note that he's way, way better than he was in SoR3.

Roo's been given some serious upgrades in the form of a powerful throw (which also means he can safely end a frontal grab if you accidentally grab from behind and vault over), the ability to pick up and use (or more importantly, throw) weapons, one of the strongest 3 star blitzes in the game and his back attacks are still awesome. His moveset certainly relies on only a few of his moves and he's still a very unorthodox character, but what he can do he does really, really well.

Roo/Victy's Movelist

Roo's new moves are marked with *SoRR*. Note that Roo in SoRR is based on his original Bare Knuckle III version, Victy, and not the modified Roo seen in Streets of Rage 3 (where he has awkwardly higher jump height than everyone else and an extra hit on each of his jabs). He's got access to the 'standard' police special, except that he blows a whistle to call the police.

The damage values for all of his SoR3 moves appear to be the same as they were originally. See here for more info: http://www.gamefaqs.com/genesis/586496- ... faqs/19717

A - Special
B - Attack
C - Jump
X - Special Combo

Normal Attacks

Basic Combo - B, B, B, B (Jab, Jab, Double Punch, Backflip). The jabs are fast but have abysmal range, the double punch is quite slow, and the backflip is slow but with good range. The backflip hits up to three times depending on distance to the enemy; too far away and it won't knockdown, although if you're in range for the jabs you're close enough to get all three hits.

Don't bother trying to just run up and punch enemies; the range is simply too atrocious for it to be safe, especially in large groups where enemies can hit Roo out of the backflip. His first couple of jabs are pretty darn quick as far as punches go, so if an enemy comes up right beside Roo or approaches from an angle that's a decent opportunity to punch and quickly grab them.

Series - Hold B for a second or two and release, or you can push the series button. Does the last move in his basic combo, the backflip. It's okay for a quick knockdown, but not much else.

Back Attack - B + C or, while holding B, push C. You can also just use the button assigned to Back Attack. Whips his tail around at the enemy, knocks down at close range. You're no longer able to hold C and push B to back attack like you could in SoR3. Also, unlike SoR3, this move no longer hits enemies directly in front of Roo as he whips his tail around.

Depending on how close you are to the enemy, this may or may not knockdown. Repeatedly using this move when you're just barely hitting with the tip of your tail allows you to infinitely keep enemies staggered, although every time you use Roo's back attack he moves towards the enemy slightly, so you'll need to readjust by moving in the opposite direction after each attack to keep enemies staggered.

Special Attacks (Consumes Special Meter/Health)

Offensive Special (Tornado Kick) - Forward + A. SoRR removed offensive special invulnerability for SoR3 characters, so Roo can be hit out of this attack even while he's spinning (especially on higher difficulties). Can hit enemies on either side, but the damage isn't worth it. It's too slow and leaves Roo way too vulnerable now for it to be really useful.

Defensive Special (Tail Flip) - A (without pressing left or right). Roo does a long, spinning backflip that hits anywhere from 1 to 5 times depending on how close you are to the enemy. Will only hit once if the enemy is in the air or is on a motorcycle. There's an amusing (but harmless) graphical glitch in SoRR that happens rarely: Roo will spin up into the air around 3 times the normal height before magically warping back to the ground. I think this happens if another enemy punches you the moment you use it to break free from a grab, not sure though as I've only seen it happen twice.

Save your special meter/health for his defensive special. His offensive special just sucks without invulnerability because of how slow and how low the range on it is, so you should just use defensive specials to dodge attacks or escape when you get surrounded by enemies.

Jumping Attacks

Standing Jump Attack - C then B (without moving left or right). Quickly whips his tail straight forward. Unbelievably difficult to hit enemies with, don't bother.

Moving Jump Attack - Forward + C then B. Under SoR3 jumping rules you can also use this by jumping straight up, moving while in the air and then attacking. A jump kick with good range that's a bit weak. Roo also doesn't keep his legs extended throughout the jump kick, so it's much less safe to use than other characters.

No-Knockdown Attack - C, then while in the air Down + B. Not bad, but if you want to stagger enemies to approach them for a grab, you're much better off staggering with Roo's back attack.

Running/Blitz Attacks

Double-tap forward, B. The blitz you use depends on how many stars you've earned via points. 1-3 star blitzes can also be executed by pressing the special combo button (X) then quickly inputting set a directions.

0 Star Blitz (Nose Slide) - Roo rolls forward before performing a slide attack. Slow and quite risky unless enemy happens to be at the edge of screen. It's possible to slide right through enemies without knocking them down if you use it too close to the enemy.

1 Star Blitz (Upgraded Nose Slide) *SoRR* - X, Forward, Forward. Basically, the same as his 0 star version, but much, much faster. Travels almost all the way across the screen now, but still doesn't seem to be very practical as it's weak, only the last hit or so knocks down and you're vulnerable while Roo rolls.

2 Star Blitz *SoRR* - X, Forward, Up. Roo slides forward and does a spinning jump attack with his tail. Very effective, hits immediately, good damage and easy to knockdown with. Great for crowd control.

3 Star Blitz *SoRR* - X, Back, Forward, Up. Roo does a fast spinning tailsweep, followed by a spinning jump attack with his tail. Travels almost all the way across the screen, only the jump attack does knockdown. Very effective to use against crowds as it's safe, and even if you're too close to knockdown enemies you'll still do a large amount of damage as you pass through them. If you use it against an enemy that's against a wall or at the very edge of the screen just as they're standing, you'll get the maximum number of hits in, taking off 3/4 of a lifebar!

Grab Attacks

When grabbing an enemy from the front:

Forward + B - Kicks the enemy. Can do this up to three times, 3rd will knockdown. Don't bother knocking down with it, kick the enemy twice then use Roo's throw.

Neutral B (don't hold a direction) *SoRR* - Headbutts and immediately knocks down the enemy. Too weak to be worth it unless you're using it to move an enemy towards the edge of the screen in preparation for a blitz attack followup.

Back + B *SoRR* - Throws the enemy behind Roo for a large chunk of damage. Roo's best grab attack by far.

When grabbing an enemy from behind:

B (doesn't matter if you hold a direction or not) - Roo repeatedly kicks the enemy followed by knockdown. Very weak for a rear grab attack, although unlike Skate's migraine, Roo is invulnerable for all intents and purposes while using it. The only exception is if you try to use this attack to dodge the minecars that pass by on the train tracks. In SoR3, with good timing Roo can use the kick attack just as a minecar is about to hit and it'll travel right through him without harm. In SoRR, the minecar seems to ignore that attack's invulnerability and will hit Roo as soon as it touches him.

Team Attack - While grabbing your teammate from either side, press C. Instead of vaulting you'll use this unique attack with his tail sticking out, feet first. Handy, but hard to use effectively if you're with a CPU teammate.

If grabbed from behind (by either enemy or teammate): C kicks forward, during the kick press B to counterthrow the enemy. This move no longer counts as a slam like it did for Roo in SoR3. If you're grabbed by your partner, using the counterthrow will instead throw your partner into their team attack.

Weapon Attacks *SoRR*

While holding any weapon, throw using B + C or the Back Attack button. This is generally the best thing to do with weapons as Roo fights better without them thanks to his extremely useful back attack.

Roo can't use guns. Instead, any time you try to pick up a gun he immediately throws it in the direction he's facing (at least this beats SoR3 where he'd just drop any weapon he picked up). Also, he can use grenades and pepper spray just like any other character.

Knife/Kunai/Bottle

B - Quickly pokes forward with the weapon. Good priority, but it's not the quickest knife attack.

Forward, Forward, B - Does a jumping upwards slash with the knife, exactly like Blaze's running knife attack. Okay damage, but not really practical. Not usable when holding a kunai or bottle.

Forward + A - Roo spins around as he slashes the knife while moving forward slowly. Flashy, but he doesn't move forward fast enough for it to be effective (I've had Donovans punch me out of it), not to mention the damage isn't worth it. Not usable when holding a kunai or bottle.

Baseball Bat/Metal Pipe/Wooden Plank/Sword

B - Roo swings the weapon over his head and brings it down slowly at an angle. The range isn't bad, but it's unsafe for anything more than hitting enemies as they stand up. Just stick to throwing these weapons.

Forward, Forward, B - Roo swings the weapon around him as he spins forward. Okay damage, only usable when carrying a sword.

Strategy

You'll notice that a lot of Roo's moves are bad, plain and simple. His punches have the worst range in the game, his jump attacks are weak and generally only needed for fighting Jets, his only powerful grab attack is his throw, his offensive special is terrible without invulnerability, his 0 and 1 star blitzes are unsafe and not strong enough to be worth the risk, and he's just not very good with weapons.

To make Roo useful, you need to really take advantage of what he's good at. His back attack is a safe poke with extreme priority for enemies who approach you, and if a few enemies group together you can keep them comboed until they die. The sweet spot where Roo's tail will stagger enemies without knocking them down is also more forgiving than in SoR3, so I strongly recommend mastering the rhythm with this attack. It's also extremely important for the more difficult enemies in the game, as, aside from a few enemies like Jets, it absolutely crushes them. For instance:

* Roo's back attack beats Signals if they try to slide at you, and if you're facing away from a Signal they love to come up behind you and use their slide attack. It's easy to just keep whipping Signals as they approach (don't try this in SoR3, their slide attack out-prioritizes Roo's back attack there).

* Kickboxers can't block it and will generally only try to use that slower jumping knee attack against you at that range. If kickboxers have a weakness it's Roo's tail whip. They usually hit you out of pretty much everything else, including blitz attacks.

* Bosses die horribly to the tail whip. It's a matter of actually hitting some of them (like Shiva or R. Bear) at the right spot with Roo's back attack, but once you do all that's required is to maintain the right rhythm to hit them over and over and over. It's not so effective in fights where there are enemies with ranged attacks though, like robots, as you'll get shot from afar while you're busy staggering an enemy, or Abadede, where it's usually better to just jump kick him as he tries to approach you diagonally.

When facing normal enemies, trying to just punch them is risky due to Roo's awful punching range. It's usually better to fend them off with back attacks and, once you're got a few of them staggered, turn around and quickly pull off a 2 or 3 star special. Enemies do not line up like they did in SoR3, so if you're facing more than two enemies at once you'll generally have an enemy try to move in front of you when in the middle of comboing an enemy with back attacks. Instead, especially with groups of four or five enemies, it's best to rush through them with 2 or 3 star blitzes over and over; you'll deal plenty of damage and you'll reliably knock 'em down. Unfortunately, Roo's 2 and 3 star blitzes, despite hitting immediately on startup, do not out-prioritize several things, including Signals' slide attacks, so you'll get hit if you blitz at the same time they slide. This isn't too big of a problem though, as Signals can be hit the moment they take to kneel right before sliding, and Roo's 2 and 3 star blitzes are very fast, so it's pretty safe to blitz them. If enemies decide to approach you all in one group, you can also just repeatedly combo to death with back attacks, but don't count on it, especially not in Mania.

Roo's 3 star blitz is also a huge source of damage if you use it when standing next to an enemy against a wall or the edge of the screen. It's helpful to learn how far Roo's back attack and grab attacks knockdown enemies in each direction so you can manipulate an enemy to be where you want them to. Roo's blitzes have very nice hitboxes. For instance, if you manage to knock a Signal offscreen where only his foot and ankle are showing, you'd still be able to run up and do a full damage 3 star blitz as he's standing up. If you manage to knockdown a group of enemies at the edge of the screen, this is a great way to rack up a ton of damage in a hurry, so long as none of them have invulnerability when standing up.

If you want to grab an enemy, start by hitting them with your back attack so they're staggered as it's a safe poke. Then, you can quickly turn around and, while they're still staggered, move in to punch them and go for the grab. On Very Hard and Mania, enemies appear to recover a bit more quickly from staggering, so you may need to hit them with Roo's tail just close enough that when you turn around you're in punching range but still far enough that Roo's back attack doesn't knockdown. It can still be done with some practice, but it's certainly trickier on higher difficulties. When an one enemy is close to you but several more on the other side of the screen approaching, you'll probably want quickly punch -> grab to throw them towards the rest of the enemies, even if it means risking a hit. That way, all of the enemies are on the same side of the screen and that's good as getting flanked is dangerous.

Anytime you're fighting somewhere there's a wall where enemies can't go offscreen and attack you, you can always hide against the wall and repeatedly back attack enemies as they approach. This doesn't work so well if there's enemies who can jump kick you, but for elevator fights against groups of kickboxers and such, this can be a good way of dealing with enemies.

Also, while cheap, grab combos are highly effective (grab from the front, kick twice, vault twice, regrab and repeat until dead) one-on-one. Roo lands very close to enemies after double vaulting to the point where you can usually regrab the enemy without even needing to stagger them with a punch. This works against almost everything (as long as they can't break free from grabs), even enemies who block punches, although it's extremely slow to kill things.

Some of the more dangerous enemies for Roo:

* Anything with a ranged attack. While you're staggering enemies with back attacks, if an enemy with some sort of ranged means of attacking (be it a jump kick, gun, laser, etc.) is around you will easily be hit. Roo's back attack generally has terrible priority against any jumping attacks, so if you see one coming you'll need to dodge is with a defensive special.

* Obese guys. They love to jump at you if they get even a second to recover from staggering, and if you're standing near them as they recover from knockdown they seem to be invulnerable and will quickly slap you around. It's also harder to hit them out of their fire breath attack via Roo's back attack than it was in SoR3. If you're facing two at once, I'd recommend grab attacks to keep them knocked down. Get around one, kick/headbutt him to the ground and do the same to the other. One at a time they're not so bad, although their jumping bodyslam is irritating.

* Ninjas. They SUCK. Nailing them with a back attack to combo them is ridiculously hard due to how they jump around, let alone just hitting them with any sort of attack. Their hitbox just seems to vanish whenever they jump, low kick, etc., making it absurdly difficult to hit them. Even blitzes don't seem to work particularly well.

Strategy if you're playing Bare Knuckle III/Streets of Rage 3: Have fun spamming his back attack over and over for the entire game as enemies approach you, occasionally use Tornado Kick's invulnerability to dodge stuff or kill ninjas. Don't try to kill the final boss with jump kicks on hard difficulty as they're too weak to kill him in time compared to Axel/Blaze/Skate's jump kicks, back attacks are the way to go. Seriously, if you were rating characters in SoR3 into tiers, he'd be in the "What are you, a masochist?" tier. You're using him because you either want a challenge, like using awkward characters or don't know any better.

Hopefully this wall of text proves useful or, at the very least, interesting. I don't profess to be an expert at the game, but I have had a good deal of practice with Roo as he's probably my most used character, and it seems he's not liked by many people. Not that I can blame them, seeing as how his fighting style is very different from the others, although he's perhaps easier to master than someone like Max, due needing to learn how to use only a few key moves and possessing very good movement speed.

Edit: updated, forgot running sword attack.

[Oddbrother]

I wonder why these moves never made it into SoR3 in the first place. :p

But seeing as we're talking about Roo/Victy, you might wanna think some good strategies when using him in Battle mode against other certain opponents as well.

[BareknuckleRoo]

Sadly, I don't have any real experience against another player in Battle mode, so I don't know what would work or what wouldn't there. It could very well be his limited pool of really good moves is simply outgunned by other characters with more broad selection useful moves.

[Don Vecta]

Heh, sounds like a difficult character to master but fun nevertheless.

How feasible is to walk up and down to catch those annoying enemies that are always swarming in circles trying to outflank you? I mean, sometimes with low range character I just keep baiting them to walk around me but then i walk up and down and tend to put them on range to either giving them a rush combo or grab them, does this work well with Roo as well?

[BareknuckleRoo]

With three enemies I've tried moving up and down to keep them from getting behind me while back attacking, but Roo's back attack isn't all that fast (and his jabs have terrible range), so I find it's a losing strategy to try to tail whip/punch away flankers. If enemies do start flanking you as Roo, I find it good to defensive special (which causes them to back away at the very least, even if they're not hit) and quickly blitz to one side of the screen. Once they're all on the same side of the screen you can try again to catch them all in a tail whip combo as they approach, or switch tactics and just blitz rush them down. Depending on how far the flanker is, you could also get rid of the enemies you're dealing with by back attacking quickly until you get close enough to knockdown, and then quickly throwing (even if it means eating a punch) the flanker to the same side as the other enemies.

With four or five enemies onscreen at once, you can pretty much guarantee that no matter how hard you try, at least one of them will manage to flank you. With that many enemies I usually find it's better just blitz them down, unless they're very resistant to blitzing (like that group of kickboxers on SoR2 Route Stage 6's beach) in which case you basically try to tail whip them to death and do your best to catch all of them in the combo (which takes a ton of luck). And if it's a large group of ninjas, well I have no idea how to deal with that other than police special them and blitz constantly while hoping for the best.

[Don Vecta]

I guess some visual concepts are more worth that thousand words, I hope you don't mind if I put your mania run with Roo to see some of these advices in a practical view.






I'm watching as I'm posting this so maybe I'll asking questions later for some exact points.

[BareknuckleRoo]

Haha, I hope you find it useful. I figured I'd make ones for SoR3 and SoRR because noone else seems to have a complete playthrough of either as Roo. I'm actually finishing up editing the commentary for parts 7-10 right now, the last bits should be up tonight or tomorrow.

It's actually my second Mania Solo, Default Lives run as Roo on that route, but the first recording got screwed by the codec I was using (I was trying a new one, hadn't noticed the issue in testing), so I had to go and beat the game again. I did much, much worse this time thanks to a couple silly deaths in Stage 6 and a MAJOR clusterfuck in Stage 7 (don't do what I did, 'kay?)... The first time I soloed Mania I beat it on my last continue with all those lives intact.

[Don Vecta]

So pretty much if you want to use the rush combo you gotta approach the enemies walking in a 3/4 angle to connect cuz sure I see he has terrible range!

And overall seems playing with Roo it's all about PATIENCE since he can't afford to deal with big swarm of enemies and his damage input it's pretty low. Seems also Roo can perform a lot better with a wall on cuz if he's next to it, he can spam the tail whips safely without having an idiot hitting you in front and if the enemies are against it, the Blitz 3 works wonders.

Pretty awesome run, BTW, hope the rest of it it's up soon.

[BareknuckleRoo]

Pretty much! It's not impossible, but approaching most enemies and going for the punch -> grab is unnecessarily risky one-on-one when the tail whip -> grab is safer. I do actually like going right for the punch -> grab against any whip ladies because they move kind of slow, though. The range at which you can tail whip them is the same as the range they try to electrocute you, so if you try to back attack and miss because you misjudged the distance, you're taking damage. I also tend to go for grabs against the fat guys, but that's because I find I get hit by their jumping attacks if I try to back attack them (they jump right over Roo's tail) and I have a hard time nailing them with a blitz.

Edit: Looking back on the run, I did tend to punch enemies for a grab whenever they happened to get right beside me as Roo's jabs are pretty fast. I may have exaggerated how bad they are and should probably update the movelist.

[Kefka]

Roo is my favorite character

I've been trying to solo Mania with him these past few days, and I can get to Stage 8 no problem, but Mr. X easily kills me. After my first game over at Mr. X I spent 3 hours using save states until I finally managed to replicate the way BareknuckleRoo beat him in his video, it's not really a reliable way to do it. Any suggestions?

[BareknuckleRoo]

I'm by no means an expert or anything, not to mention that run is pretty bad and there's probably someone else who plays Roo like JoyJoyfulRabbit who could do it better (Stage 6 and Stage 7 were both clusterfucks, lol). How many lives/continues do you usually have left when you reach him? With 5 lives and allowing continues, you should be able to do well enough at the rest of the game to have the resources to get through Mr. X, even if you do badly against him. Honestly, when I recorded that run the plan was basically to do well enough at the rest of the game that I'd have enough lives to just brute force through Mr. X, as I find I just need to be lucky to do well against him. :p I think I was actually expecting to get a gameover there, I hadn't anticipated I'd be able to take off a ton of his health with back attacks.

You might do better if you just focus on trying to run up to Mr. X and use Roo's throw, it's one of his few moves that does a huge chunk of damage (Mr. X seems to weave around too much to be accurately hit with a 2/3 star blitz, and he has wakeup invulnerability do you can't use on on him as he stands). I never seem to be good at actually grabbing Mr. X, unfortunately. He may only summon a finite number of helpers, so you could try toughing it out and simply focusing on dodging via defensive specials and seeing if he ever runs out of Galsias/Donovans. Judging by how Mr. X himself seems to summon them (they only reappear when Mr. X is in a non-staggered state) I'm not sure whether or not they're infinite, honestly. There's also the option of simply trying to throw them at Mr. X for damage, although that might take a while.

Back attacks are still the most reliable way I've found, sadly, and that's reliant on being lucky enough to catch Mr. X along with his goons. Hopefully someone else can work out a more foolproof method of taking him down.

[Kefka]

I usually get to the elevator part having lost no continues, and proceed to lose one or both of them on the ride up. So about 5-6 lives.

I did notice that after a while only 1 or 2 Garcias were summoned, so he may run out of them eventually. It's just kind of hard to get close to him with that gun attack, and throwing him kind of works, but it takes a while since he has 6 lifebars.

[BareknuckleRoo]

It's just kind of hard to get close to him with that gun attack, and throwing him kind of works, but it takes a while since he has 6 lifebars.

Yeah. He's significantly beefed from what he was like in either SoR1 or SoR2; much more aggressive, durable and harder to actually hit. Mr. X definitely puts up one hell of a fight in the Remake.

[Kefka]

Still, I thought your run was great, I pretty much learned how to play Roo from it

[BareknuckleRoo]

Haha, glad you liked it. Hopefully you get better at playing Roo than I am and figure out some tricks or something we can learn from! I actually learned how to use him by watching JoyJoyfulRabbit's vids like this one; that was pretty much how I discovered the crazy useful potential of Roo's back attack.