You know you could have reloaded your save with R. The game has a functioning save system, just no main menu. Its a shame you ended up losing your progress because you can complete the game right after beating the nose (or hand)! As for the attacks, there is a pattern! the nose will only attack in the first three rows up from the ground, and like lightning it will never attack in the same row twice in a row. Once you learn that it becomes a game of jumping through the space that the last bullet traveled through, or you can cheese the boss (by staying in the fourth row up). If you stay on the ground and run right, you should almost never get hit by spikes, as you will typically recover from the attacks in time.