I wish I could rate this game more highly. I played this via the Zero/ZX Legacy Collection, and I used the save-assist option, call me a pleb if you like but I thought the game offered plenty of challenge even with the save-assists turned on. For the most part this game is really tightly designed, but the first of the two biggest complaints I have with it is the fact that boss cutscenes play every single time you attempt them, and if you're someone like me who needs to practice a boss several times to get past it, then trust me when I say this gets annoying fast, especially in the final boss. The second complaint is the cyber elves. I get what they were going for here, by giving players an option to make the game easier while requiring you not to use that crutch if you want to get a higher score, but so much of the game's mechanics revolves around them that everything besides health pickups loses all meaning if you aren't using them. What I think would've been a much better option would be to leave the elves that restore health or provide temporary buffs as-is, and make the ones that increase your health and provide other permanent upgrades not reduce your score or need you to murder in-universe sentient creatures, y'know just have the upgrades hidden in the levels like in the X games. If you still wanted to encourage players to try not using them, then you could just lock hard mode or Jackson behind it. Overall this game is good, but I feel like it could be better.