This game is basically The Second Reality Project Reloaded without the graphical uplift and custom over-world map. Levels are well designed and fun to play. The over-world map is almost identical to the original. All levels are new. This is great since The Second Reality Project Reloaded crashes on real hardware due to, of all things, sound bugs.

The difficulty curve is well done. It starts out easy for an average player and gradually gets more difficult. By Vanilla Dome it had passed the original in difficulty. By Valley of Bowser I was really struggling. Bowser’s castle is very difficult. Star Road is very difficult as well. And then there is the Special World, which is at the extreme end of difficulty while still being doable on real hardware (which means no save states). The last stage of Special World is impossible on hardware, at least for me. I played for an hour every day for a week before I finally gave up.

I have not played the ‘hard’ version, but the occasional power-ups and midway gates are certainly welcome here. My only complaint is that saving can be a pain. Having to go back to a ghost house to save quite often near the end was annoying, but at least the donut ghost house secret exit is easy and very quick.