I think it's underrated because the pods are much less complex and very different from previous games, but I think it's a perfectly good game in its own right. Very stylish, and perfectly acceptable as a spinoff game even if it's not acceptable to R-Type purists. The World revision's two button pod handling feels more polished overall though, so it's one of the rare cases I'd recommend the World version over the Japanese one. It's a bit easier though due mainly to the lack of checkpoints; I cleared it before this one.
Yeah, the music gives a very chill lounge kind of vibe, I definitely dig it, but the last couple of stages absolutely do not screw around and you learn them or get owned hard. I played the game off and on for a while, but when a friend was playing it that motivated me to spend a month dedicating myself to learning the sections that were a wall to me. Eventually got a clear of the easier World version (the one with no checkpoints and where you can fire your main gun when launching the orbs), then it wasn't too tough to do the JP version!
Oh, and check out this clear by SPM that uses the red weapon only and NO HOMING ORBS. He played it like it was a classic R-Type game, haha! He did it shortly after I got my 1ccs, really impressive stuff: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YdAPpwaduKs.html
