This was my first time working on this version of the game. May have tried it in the past but not sure. I did play through the Sega CD version on "Easy" which took 4 hours 46 minutes and was quite difficult. So I got most of my practice from that version which seems like its harder than this one, especially on Mania mode I assume. This one maxes out at Hardest mode and its not that much harder than Normal.
I started with Hardest mode to see where I would get. You get 4 lives per continue and 9 continues. Compared to the Sega CD version where you get 5 continues at 5 lives each. So that makes it more managable than that version as well. Sega CD and this version let you start right where you died upon continuing. The gameboy advance and super sluggish SNES port make you start at the beginning of a stage when you lose a continue.
Check out my normal mode playthrough of this version as well. I will be trying Hardest mode again and want to try harder modes on the Sega CD version as well again. I only tried normal on that version and got to the final stage in that mode. Ive gotten much better since after beating Easy mode on Sega CD.
1