Nice twist to the genre. The gameplay, art style and sound design made me feel like a kid again, great trip on memory lane (wish i had an Amiga joystick). I don't think the game is slow (it's just as it's supposed to be). But if, in the future, you do change the speed, than maybe it would be good to balance it with the picking up of other ships mechanic. What I mean is: the ship becomes slower with every other picked up ship. In this way the player has to strategies when/why to pick up other ships or when to skip them. All in all well done!