i usually play on hadest, and ms games on hardest just kills it. its not even hard, just damn repetetive and takjes way too fucking long imo. back in the days i could finish ms1, 2/x and 3 in 1cc on hardest. and even then it took a long ass while, especially all those times when you run out of special weapon bullets (which will happen a lot on hardest). games are still fun though, its probably my favorite side scrolling shooter along with contra series.