This was my best attempt on the final stage, after 1 hour 14 minutes of trying. Unfortunately no Checkpoint was given, even after beating the first two bosses. The last stage may not have any checkpoints. I will have to test that out next time with save states. If there are no checkpoints at all then I may restart the game and set the starting lives to 4 as well as 5 health. It defaults at 2 lives and 3 health. The enemies on this final stage do much more damage. This is the harder US version of the game, Im not sure how the others are. I will most likely end up beating the game but I may turn up the lives depending. This game doesnt have great hit detection and your character walks very slow.