While I liked it a little more this time, it's unfortunately still not quite there upon revisiting. Having played R-Type II first this time, this port comparatively feels massively compromised in ways that don't really benefit it. The bosses are worse, the slowdown frequently brings it to a crawl far worse than maybe any other SNES shmups, and even without the slowdown in mind the overall scrolling and pacing is just far more lethargic than the arcade original. I do appreciate the intended difficulty being a bit more sober this time, but it's brought to a similar level purely by technical issues, which is really not good at all. It seems like most of my friends prefer this version of II to the arcade version, but I can't say I agree.

There's also still no checkpoints, by the way. This fact unfortunately hasn't magically changed between my playthroughs. I feel like you can't bring up Super R-Type without bringing that up, it's just such a weird choice to make.

This is the console port of R-Type II, featuring a new level at the start, tons of slowdown (though not as bad as Steel Empire or Thunder Force IV), and no checkpoints OR instant respawn. If you die, even at the boss, you're back at the start of the level. It's really absurd, and doesn't have much of a cool factor propping it up like its sequel does. Wouldn't recommend.

Shoutout to these penis crabs in the final stage as well. I hope you like it, because they swarm you constantly until you reach the end boss.