thank you for the thoughtful feedback! and glad you still remember Apoplex! :))
due to lots of feedback about the difficulty, i've made a post-jam version on the TIC-80 website where the minigames advance at 50% speed: http://tic80.com/play?cart=3493
(the build on the itch page is untouched.)
yeah balancing is tricky, and i still easily fall into the trap of 'developer difficulty' - making the game challenging for myself, and then noticing it's almost impossible for others.
i'm glad you had fun, that cheers me up!