First time playing in 11 days. On my first attempt I got around as far as I got in the past. By my second full attempt I got to the final level with 1 life remaining but accidentally hit the reset button instead of save state. (I was going to save to practice if I failed)
Tried it a third time today and got back to the final level with one life remaining again, but made some new progress. This is that attempt. It should go down soon as I now have a save state on the final level so I can practice it seperately. Its not hard for me to get there now.
Using the female character seemed to make a big difference. She has good speed but the worst health. However she has two advantages. She can jump a large gap in the 4th level to save time (near the end) and she has fire bombs. The fire persists for a while and can be set in an area where enemies will continuously burn to death.
Despite an 11 day break I still remembered everything.