Wow, this game has improved a lot! The artwork of your characters, the background imagery, the story, the epic music, the fun gameplay mechanic. This has it all. Top marks from me. I feel like this game is going to be one of the best, it has so much potential. Here is a few suggestions that I feel could make this even better and it's already great by the way:
1) I would suggest slowing the parallax scrolling of the background or not have it scroll at all or just have certain things that do instead like the sun or some birds.
2) Perhaps have the patting of the head heal your character, whilst rubbing belly attacks the other player