It's funny how slow-paced and easy the early stages in Super Hydorah on Vita now feel to me, having dealt with the later stages, haha. I blew through the eight stages prior to Galactic Inferno, using a guide to get the secrets in all of them. That only netted me one additional trophy, as only a few individual secrets pop a trophy (though there's also one for finding all the secrets). I did still use a couple continues even on these easier stages. I guess I'll give Galactic Inferno a try and see if all my practice can produce a relatively easy clear. If not, I'll probably stop hunting down secrets here and move on to another game.

One thing that's annoying is that I read, once you earning the good ending, on subsequent playthroughs, you get a free shield upon starting each life, but I guess that's not in this version. I see nothing different in this replay versus my first time through. I know there are some differences between this version and later releases. I know later releases got a difficulty option where you get a 3-hit shield with every life, which sounds like it would make a HUGE difference. Though, you can't earn the hero ending on that mode, and your score is reduced. But no such thing in the Vita version, nor the two-player mode.