An improvement over the first one which was to be expected but it was interesting to see how much the developers improved in only a year. The game felt overall more forgiving than the first entry with more forgiving platforming and enemies and bosses that don’t all hit like trucks. On a first run through a level, you will still likely die, which I am not fond of, but the improvement in the level design made redoing sections far less tedious. The iconic soundtrack was great for getting me pumped up for each stage and the sprite work is stellar with the team using every pixel at their disposal to create some awesome-looking designs, my favorite being the Guts-Tank. My major gripe with the game is its reliance on certain weapon types which can lead to situations where I run out of energy for that weapon and I might as well waste all of my lives so I can get that energy back. Case in point the final boss which is only weak to one weapon type which you can not replenish in between attempts. Not a hard boss by any means but that resource management is a bit unnecessary.

There’s not much else to say as this game and the ones to come all follow a similar set up albeit with minor alterations. This title would set the groundwork for what the series will truly become and still holds up all right.