In-depth character discussion: Roo

[Kefka]

I think the best way for Roo to beat Mr. X might actually be to focus on the helpers. Throwing them gives Roo some much needed invulnerability frames, and if you manage to throw them at him you can even do some damage. I don't know if they stop spawning completely, but eventually only one of them appears at a time, which makes things much easier.

I'll give it a try

[DarkThief]

I actually like Roo despite his flaws, and his jump is so much improved since SoR3 it's actually viable for spamming and countering...but he'll probably be the last I try Mania runs on. (cleared it on Very Hard although I've not actually been using back attacks, so there's plenty of ground to make up )

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.

It is actually possible to kill Robot Y on Hard in time using his vertical tail kick (it does the same damage as Axel/Zan's best air moves), but the timing is so much harder that you'll need an emulator and lots of quicksave/quickload spam to do it. I got him off the screen in a few secs and let 1 mistake through that cost me another few secs (pressed quicksave instead of quickload), finished with 2.44 secs left

[BigDarsh]

Videos kill the radio star! Videos kill the radio star!
hum...
Savestate kills the video game! Savestate kill the video game!

Don't take it for you DarkThief, but this is really what I think. Games has been designed to be played with a pad/keyboard, hands,(sometimes feets lol), brains and time. Savestates and memory cards just not fits.

sorry for being off-topic

[realnabarl]

Videos kill the radio star! Videos kill the radio star!
hum...
Savestate kills the video game! Savestate kill the video game!

Don't take it for you DarkThief, but this is really what I think. Games has been designed to be played with a pad/keyboard, hands,(sometimes feets lol), brains and time. Savestates and memory cards just not fits.

sorry for being off-topic

Trashy game designing kills player! I mean Robot Y with 9 lifebars.

[BareknuckleRoo]

but the timing is so much harder that you'll need an emulator and lots of quicksave/quickload spam to do it.

That's why I didn't really recommend it. It does a bit extra damage (same as Axel's jump kick) but compared to Roo's jump kick, the jumping tail attack has unforgiving timing and is way too hard to hit with reliably for only slightly increased damage. No point using a method that's reliant on savestates.

As noted in the video, tail whipping Robot Y seems to actually kills him a bit faster than repeatedly jump kicking him as say, Blaze or Skate. It's simply dependent on catching Robot Y as fast as possible and not screwing up the timing of the combo. You do have a slight bit of room for error as you can see I finished with like 40 seconds left (lol, was hoping Tornado Kick would finish him and look cool, oh well).

[DarkThief]

Took me a couple of stages to get used to the rhythm, but once I got there, that was it Between that and the double-vault trick it has to be the cheesiest way to beat Mania but hey, it works. I didn't even jump that much until I got to X (via SoR3->Nightclub->Vehelits->Dr.Dahm), as I'm pretty good at timing his punches to hit punks head-on (and manoeuvring around to come in from above/below for grabs). The forward A special is still useful as a combo finisher, too. Took me a hell of a lot longer than the other characters, but was definitely the most satisfying along with the first