wow, this game while nice graphics wise and control needs a bit of tlc on the difficulty. the main problem is no safty systems like hp. some of the foes are in real mean places such as twords the top of the "screen" which acts as a wall bouncing the player back down on top of an instant death hazard a perfect example of this is in stage one where to progress you have to basicly do a pixel perfect jump to avoid hitting the flying hazard after the staionary one, its not impossable but with no safty nets like an hp system or a way to elemenate foes its very cruel design thats going to scare off a lot of potental players... just a sugestion you already got various fat sprites why not make those the hp system rather then an instant failure if the limitations your working with allow it each hit degrading the player until the last one is game over could be a nice mechanic and could make otherwise easy jumps a challenge.
gonna edit this as i go.
level 2's gotcha sign is a very sour joke given it sends you back to stage 1
stage three has annother gotcha with a sign... i think im going to come back in a few days after ive cooled down. if your trying to do difficulty this is whats refered to as artifical difficulty. no one liked it unless you were running the arcade cabbient.