One good thing, kinda, about Hawk's headbutt is that it only does average damage on bosses - so you don't need to mess with the game's much finickier grapple range on them. For player-sized enemies, who have dizzy states, it's just a matter of knocking 'em down once, then hittin' em from the back.
(or feinting around to their back, with a little footwork)
Slippin' and slidin', that ass I be ridin' (■`w´■)
Something was bugging me about Stage 4's opening doggo/hobo combo, so I limped a quick run with my busted-ass controller. Aha! I'd forgotten my exploit of the
stage start invincibility. Here's a quick video demo. Totally consistent pattern. This is Vendetta 2P... can't recall if the gunner dies to the pointblank in JP. Regardless, as shown, he's left at death's door, while poochy is a goner.
And here's the doggo handling/cue-up I mentioned, with a couple of deliberate walks into his contact-activated bite. The first three jumps are untelegraphed; I think this is due to either being too close,
or my invading his Y-axis, rather than letting him come to me. The telegraphed jumps consistently occur when 1) I'm far enough away, and 2) he gets on my line. Easier in practice than on paper.
Bork! GIF of same
No idea how Gay Dog behaves in his native Crime Fighters PCB habitat, but in the unfortunately censored ACA release, he's restricted to Straight Dog techniques only. Pyrrhic, to say the least. 3;
Couple other things I was reminded of this brief session:
-while the Molotov gains monster damage at pointblank, the Brick is the opposite. A "contact shot" with your hand actually hitting the target will simply knock them down, while the Brick (happily enough) bounces off the screen edge ready for another go. This is pretty important vs the final gauntlet, where instakilling KungFu or SADOMASO-CHAN is a good edge.
-it's key when fighting the Rudes to never be stranded at 4HP or less, while Fred/Igor is alive. He can easily snipe you en-route to a health pickup, with his nasty 8way attack. It's definitely worth taking out Fred ASAP, even if you get knocked down in the process. Frank's a joke without backup.
(man, I love it when stage start i-frames
are a thing :3 I be dead down here? nonono, YOU be dead down here!)