Over-hyped. R-Type Final features some horrible clunkiness at every stage. First, the game doesn't auto-save for some unknown reason. Second, you can never continue a game from anywhere other than the beginning of the game. And third, although there 100 ships to unlock, you can only have 8 registered to your pilot (profile). Again, that's a mystery.
It doesn't help that the game is claustrophobic, forcing your ship into tight little corners, without space to breathe. This the final R-Type for a reason. These sorts of old-school games just don't seem to gather much innovation anymore.