Meh.
I remember this game from some time ago. It was hard then, and it remains so now. Generally it could be worse, but do us ONE favor? Make it so when you die and come back, you are invincible for at LEAST a second to prevent cheap deaths. You'll probably disagree and think it's all fair when you die and when you come back you get hit again, it's frustrating at times.
So, that's all I'd want added. Although I like the coin item addition, allows for some truly nice scoring.
That's my only beef. Otherwise, don't sweat it. It's all cool.