RS has no powerups man. I mean, you can collect certain pinky bullets (to use the super attack), but you need to use the ship's sword to do so, since those bullets can still kill you.
What I loved in RS was the creative level design. The game puts you in absurd situations and makes your blood flow. Feels good.
Also the collision detection took the gameplay to another level, allowing (or maybe demanding) the player to make micro-dodging (tap, tap, tap technique). After RS, I couldn't play other shmups where you die by merely getting close to the bullets anymore. Everytime I died in RS, I felt it was 100% *my* fault, and could see where I have failed, and improve upon that. I like that.
It's not like, Gigawings 2, where they fire a swarn, no, a *cloud* of bullets at you, and they are so cramped together you can't dodge them without having to move all over the screen (but Gigawings 2 is fun in it's own way).