Not strictly an improvement from 2016, but it's just as fun.
Movement and weapon variety is fantastic and the timed and slayer key challenges are a very welcome addition. Exploration is improved as well.
The extra lives system is hit or miss, though it seems somewhat necessary to avoid massively frustrating resets because in this game it feels like half the time you get hit it's from out of nowhere. The way you can get cornered and basically stuck until you die is part of that too. Final boss was a bit of a mess.