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I did not find the partial change in music is annoying, but I felt it didn't reach the original quality of music. The player character sprite is well done as are a few of the enemies. However, there were a few too many where I had to wonder what the enemy sprite was supposed to represent. The siren looks great. The final boss, which I think was supposed to be Polyphemus (the cyclops), didn't seem imposing enough (unless you find balloons scary). It seems like the arrow projectile (which seem to oscillate forward/backward?) and the final boss projectile could also use some work.

Some of the level design is interesting. I like the look of the sailing boats and the Hades level was an interesting concept (although probably not fully utilized). There are a few background tiles (that just look like random pixels) that could probably be changed into something more representative.

This does not require kaizo skill levels, but you might have to move fast or shoot the lotus eaters (the hammer bros. equivalents) which appear on the first level. I didn't find any 1-up or star equivalents, but it could be because I wasn't thorough enough in going through all of the levels. There is a series of difficult jumps in level 1-7, but if you can pass level 8-1 in the original game then you should do fine. I used save states, but was never frustrated.

There may be an issue with the hit boxes for the arrows on the cobras (which are the piranha plant equivalent). This could be because the arrows do not have a downward and bouncing trajectory (like the fireballs in the original game). At any rate, with practice I was able to hit the cobras, but I did have plenty of shots that went through the sprite.