i was originally gonna give this a higher rating but it started getting progressively worse about halfway through.
- controls are generally good, but they seem to be more sensitive than zero mission (in a bad way). i often had jumps cancelled against my will by accidentally sliding past up on the dpad for half a second when going from left to right
- story is corny and a bit forced but i don't mind that at all
- overall map design is quite good. i do think the hand-holding with all the navigation rooms goes a bit far but also at the same time i still desperately want some kind of in-game map/item percentage tracker for each area so i have little room to complain.
- however, endgame map design gets a bit silly. some of the hidden puzzles after getting screw attack are absurdly difficult and very much not fun. i also hate that once again the game tries to lure you into fighting the final boss(es) to lock you out of exploring for the final items without giving you any indication that it will do so. "hey heres your next objective, also by the way you cant explore anymore haha bye"
- i hate sa-x. im glad the sa-x chase segments are super minor but also i hate that they are there at all, they suck and are not fun whatsoever. also, the fact that it destroys entrances without marking them differently on the map is horrible
- the bosses were pretty good at first, but by the end (p much everything after nightmare, possibly including nightmare) they became horrible awful hp sponges, and the final core phase of most of them just became an absolute nuisance, especially for bosses that are already hard to beat with any health left

but yeah still a pretty good game, 8/10