Just a follow up. Finally got this in this past weekend. Sad to say, I'm sort of disappointed.
The game looks really great graphically. I think part of that is due to the sprites being bigger onscreen than in the MD game. Things were a lot smaller and spread out in that one. The higher color pallete mentioned really helps out too. The colors just pop.
Although the sprite size helps the way it looks, I think that's part of my problem with the gameplay. I haven't spent much time with it thus far, but I just feel really closed in, especially on boss fights, and double that when using the blimp. The lifebar helps, but this game is fucking tough even with that.
Not sure what I was expecting. It just looked so good. Guess just not my cup of tea. I'm going to give it more time, but as of now, Gradius Galaxies is the best portable shooter I've yet to play on any system. I'll probably end up trading or selling this one off (along with Iridion II--blah!).