Just got this in the mail late yesterday.
Got the day off of work today due to the holiday so I know what I'm going to be doing. lol
EDIT: And I beat it. lol
A solid enough game that is probably best compared to NG3 and Batman. Ryu's gameplay is mostly the same bar having a shorter jump, not being able to move while hanging, a self damaging screen attack, and the ability to crawl. Wall jumping feels almost note for note how it does in Batman NES and the game often reuses stage design tricks from it as well. The game is very generous with check points and infinite subweapons are very abuseable. The issue is though that level design tends to be cheap in the bad way. Lots of bottomless pits and surprise attacks that leave no way to dodge even if you know they're coming.
Many enemies have homing projectiles, are very fast, and a majority of then take more than hit to kill, even those borrowed from the NES games. If you thought Hawks (also in the game) were Ryu's worst nightmare, this game has fireballs that attack in groups of 3-4, hug onto you rather than take swipes, and take 2 hits to defeat, and almost exclusively appear over small platforms.
The game is very colorful and has great graphics, but the story, music, and cutscenes are bland. Bosses are surprisingly easy (because infinite subweapons) and have very predictable patterns. Am glad to own it and will play it again though I can't say it's better than the NES trilogy bar the NA version of NG3.