I think the main reason this one isn't viewed so favorably is that it came out after so many other beat 'em ups. It used a lot of the common tropes, so it seemed outdated and clicéd on its release. In hindsight, we can see that it made a lot of strives to keep up with the competition, and to me, it's almost as good as SoR 2 and 3, and definitely a better game than the first one, even if that was more influential.
Very fun for what it is but it gets kinda annoying how you have to wait for the enemies when they get thrown out the screen, still that may be me being unfamiliar with classic side scrolling beat em ups
Sound - B
Gameplay - B
Control - A
Fun Factor - B
This is a decent entry in the series after the mediocre FF2. The main problem is the slowdown when too many chrs are on the screen.