[quote name='aheineken']How hard is this game? I'm generally pretty bad at beat 'em type action games, and I'm trying to decide what difficulty level I should play this on.[/QUOTE]
The first two difficulty levels essentially "play" the game for you. You just press buttons, and it automatically performs the most useful combos. Do yourself a favor and do NOT play on those difficulty levels. You'll never understand how rewarding the real game can be.
Checkpoints are generous, and you can buy all sorts of helpful items to make it through a level, so try the third difficulty level first. If it ever gets to a point where you just HAVE to lower it, you can always do so.