Around 1 hour 54 minutes to beat. The in game timer says 1:37 but I base it off my recordings. This is an Xbox 360 game played on Series X. I was able to beat the game my first time playing while using only 1 continue. You have 3 continues and get a good amount of 1-ups with some light exploration. The final boss was the part that drained the most lives.
Very good game in the series. I assumed this was a graphical upgrade to one of the original games but its a unique game. Not quite as good as the three 16-bit games but still very good. I beat the two genesis games on the channel as well. Still have to complete the SNES game. All 3 of those 16-bit games are unique games despite both sharing the same title "Sparkster". Those versions are MUCH harder with better boss fights but the stage gameplay here is comparable, just much easier. Stay tuned for my review of the game soon. Also check out my tutorials for the other two genesis games here:
I edited down one pause screen, but otherwise the video is unedited. Normally I would make a tutorial for a game like this, but I found it too easy and I think its mostly clear to see whats going on.