Playing this after the third installment, it's pretty much the same deal but just shorter, which isn't a bad thing at all. As an arcade game, it felt to be on the fairer side, you can actually get pretty far with a quarter even on your first playthrough and it doesn't feel as unfair as some of the quarter-churners I've seen.

The high-paced action keeps up all the way to the end and the bosses are pretty memorable in their design. I can see how the third one was a direct follow-up, expanding the role of the vehicles whereas here they felt like a neat addition or a temporary power-up (or maybe I just lost them too fast).

Unfortunately the game suffers from pretty heavy slowdowns which really take away from the otherwise awesome action. I've heard there is some ways around those with overclocking or emulation, but it's a sad blemish on otherwise great game.