Had a great time figuring this out, but it still have major things it must be addressed, some positions of the platforms made me fall quite a lot, and the new lives were lost before the very same, waterfall is a good example, if you fall in the wrong place, you spawn in the very same spot where you died and die again.
Sprites are actually good, in a sense that the interpretation was nice enough to know what weapon they were carrying, and the execution of their shots was accurate, scenery was just ugly overall, moving around it wasn't quite enjoyable, sorry about that.
Weapons are something that just need adjustments, some sounds are quite loud and some bullets, em, weird, laser moves along with scenery, and rockets are too slow and useless, also, I never used the "stand still and shoot" button, is far more easy the "duck and shoot" one.
This was a nice tribute and I really enjoyed the concept behind it, good job!