After a quick playthrough where I actually died on the last hit of the last boss on the first level, it's does feel more difficult on normal but you can't set lives like you could in the other games. I also had a quick go on SoR 2 on Steam Megadrive collection to get a good comparison.
The good: The combat is very good, they've kept it true to the original games with it feeling a bit more complex and smooth. Exceeded my expectations in that department.
Music: A lot of effort into creating some dance music hooks like the first games, doing a good job on that.
Overall graphics: Actually the line drawn cell shaded style looks a lot better than I thought, more solid and layered looking than the flat paper effect I was expecting.
The Bad: This is only opinion but the new characters aren't well designed for me, a giant version of Jax from Mortal Kombat and a student looking girl with a guitar. Not the street fighters I was hoping for like Adam or Axel, who does at least have a really good updated design. Blaze has had some sexualised Mai Shiranui treatment from KoF, looks great but not sure I like as much as prior versions for s street fighting character.
Background graphics: They've worked hard, but go into battle mode and you've seen a lot of what it has to offer, it looks fairly generic and similar, the line drawn tablet art style isn't as engaging or detailed looking as pixel art can be, again just opinion.
Overall, it's definitely good, seems like a perfect game for gamepass for me, well worth buying for others.