^^ I was thinking of tasing this one, too, but since my laptop can't handle enough keys for a two player run and that I'm still busy with Dynamite Headdy stopped me from doing this.
Here are some infos, if they are useful:
Attacks:
For expert mode the most damaging attacks are: fire+chaser,fire+lightning, force+force, slide and jump-attack with 4 damage per frame followed by lightning+lighning and force+lightning with 3 points per frame. I didn't test throwing, but usually it does a lot of damage, but since iirc the recovery time for the enemy to get up is very long it should only be used as a finisher. I forgot to check throwing the partner into the enemy. This could be a great damager, too.
Movement:
velocity adresses:
Player1: x-velocity: 00FFA419, y-v.: 00FFA41D
Player2: x-v.: 00FFA619, y-v.: 00FFA61D
I just did one test over 150 frames, but it might be possible, that jump attacks are a faster form of movement than super slides. But I'm not very sure about it. I think, it will end up doing both to avoid enemies on the ground or in the air, since they slow you down a lot.
I don't have enough experience with this game, but still I'm not very happy with the fixed shot idea. The snake moves autonomous for some frames after giving a direction, so you could wait for that moment, giving you the ability to move at least a little. Example: You move to the right-> snake goes right, hitting the enemy. Than you tap left, making the snake go left (hitting the enemy), while you stand, than you walk right again, etc. (sorry, hard to explain:) )
Lags:
Dynamite Headdy (also from treasure) lags a lot, so with all these enemies on the screen and being an earlier game, it might be possible that you will have to check for lags more often. Especially when deciding, if you kill an enemy (explosion), or not (more enemies on screen).
Difficulty:
I just start this discussion, because now it would be easier to restart the run.
Why doing the run on normal-difficulty:
-it's faster
-the run, which would be obsoleted was also played on normal
-combat attacks are much more damaging compared to weapons (jump- or slide attack 10p/frame, fire+chaser 6p/frame, fire+lightning 5p/frame) -> more variety
hard-difficulty:
-the lowest/fastest difficulty with all seven forces
expert:
-tases are usually played on the hardest settings
-iirc the speedrun on SRD is also played on expert
your run so far:
I like it :)
This is a well known game, so maybe expectations are high. Plus it is a 2 player run, which adds to difficulty. I'm really looking forward to it and wish you the very best. Good luck!