Originally posted by: toma

Just finished an entire playthrough of the game in PAL mode and I'm pretty happy with it as well. I've adjusted the music so that it sounds more like the NTSC version though, and I find it actually gives the illusion of the game being a bit quicker even without altering the physics. I did notice there were a few instances of slowdown/status bar scroll flicker in later levels when I had too many enemies on the screen. This doesn't happen in NTSC mode. I'm guessing it has to do with the PAL NES having a slightly slower CPU. Anyway, it only happened 4 or 5 times and the easy fix removing an easily-defeated enemy here and there. No big deal. The final boss had a fair amount of slowdown as well but I figured out an acceptable workaround for that as well that I'm happy with.

I do think the PAL version is slightly easier because of the speed, but in later levels it's still pretty tough. I actually have a death counter baked into the password system in the final game. It keeps track even if you get a game over and hit continue as well, but you never actually see it on screen until the ending. Adds a little replay value, especially to those tricky stages in the later half of the game!