This game is considered to be extremely hard, especially for a speedrun. One hit equals death, and your character moves very slowly. Some quotes about this game:
Spacecow: Knowing how easy it is to die in this game, you certainly do cheat death an awful lot.
Frenom: I got the original of this game and I cant even make it to the next level without dying on Easiest.
daniayaw: This game is _impossible_ to beat without savestates..
However, thanks to the use of a glitch with the demo system to warp to 8-3, the majority of the game is skipped.