Clumsy
It was a nice try and all, but frankly I never felt fully in control of this game.
The character was slidy and unresponsive, while the enemies were glitchy at best. There's a reason you had to put a lot of lives into this game, and it wasn't because it was naturally hard, it was vital so that the player could live through the game's own blunders.
I don't get a lot of enjoyment out of a game I can't even climb to the top of a ladder in (at least without auto jumping into a shotgun that is). In general it was just disapointing. Especially the boss, which was just a meat grinder for the 50+ lives you had at that point. There was no viable strategy to beat him beyond, jump on him, run, die, respawn, do it again.