I’m gonna play more SoR1, so maybe I’ll form a differing opinion as I go, but what struck me to make my previous post (which I didn’t convey very well in it) was how similar the path through the game is - street, beach, bridge, boat, factory. Most of the enemies return in the second game, too. SoR2 to me seemed fancier - more moves, more enemy types, more variety within stages, names and health bars for all enemies. I’m not a big fan of stage hazards so I don’t mind their lack in the sequel. Better was perhaps the wrong word.
I like Adam’s basic combo (haven’t played much of the other two yet), but I found I kept getting knocked out of it once there were multiple enemies on screen. I spent a lot of the game doing jump kicks alternately left and right to deal with being surrounded. This didn’t serve me well against the second and third stage bosses who can knock you out of the air. Probably I haven’t played enough yet to have a good sense of what the gameplay offers. One thing I really liked: the baseball bat. Apparently it has less reach than the pipe, but it must swing faster or something because I found it much more useful. Too bad 2 dropped it.