Interesting that I didn't run into the "m9" blocks near the upper end of 3-4 the first time... unless you changed something about them...! (I downloaded V1.1 yesterday, something that I messed up at when I was playing modfest mods)
As for the m9 blocks situated near the end of 3-4, they're designed to catch you if you dip a little too low while fluttering from block to block! You managed to do the jump correctly the first time, so you didn't activate them.
3-B was neat. One of the jumps (the one with a lava drop above you and a magma tunnel right next to you) felt a bit awkward (and I kept going into it by accident) and I hate how I got the quiz wrong when I was super confident on my first answer somehow but... felt like it took less time out of me than 3-2 or 2-B.... I'm gonna say thats maybe a good thing? lol
As you can probably tell, the gimmick for 3B was portals and the like, and I'm very glad to see that the jump right before the quiz, while mean, wasn't asking too much from the player. I added that hint sign at the start of 3B-1 because I was a lil' worried!
Bone (Lord) has a phase 1 that feels really easy to beat if you just stand in a corner but phase 2 feels very overwhelming.
I guess it's kinda like the fruit? Difference with that is the smaller room and way more aggressive boss.
Gonna be honest I felt very lucky when I beat it, maybe I found a winning strategy? Seemed like more than that later on.
Your experience about tracks as far as fighting the Bone (Lord) goes: a simple shootbang stand-off in the first phase, then an overwhelming second phase to give the player some pause. You happened to beat the boss in the harder way, whereas another route is to use an upgraded not-Snake to plink at it through the platform... and the easiest route, of course, being to progress first to 4-A for the not-Fireball so you can let gravity handle the boss for you. Good job on taking it out in the way you did!
... also, if you beat the bonus bosses in order, you go from the Rock to the Stone and finally the Bone (Lord).
Rock and Stone to the Bone!
ʰᵃʰᵃ ʰᵉᵉʰᵒᵒ ᴰᵉᵉᵖ ᴿᵒᶜᵏ ᴳᵃˡᵃᶜᵗᶦᶜ ʳᵉᶠᵉʳᵉⁿᶜᵉ
Falling into the punishment room for a 3rd time made me extremely distrustful for further falls (As you'll see when I got to 1-A), not wanting a 4th visit I immediately started resetting in all my subsequent attempts of that room the moment I started falling again.
Looks like my usage of the Penalty Room was spot-on, too! Using it juuust enough to put the fear of GOD into the player, while not using it to such an extent that it becomes unfunny levels of frustrating. You're totally forgiven for pausing/resetting to avoid getting locked inside again, too; the feature's there, after all, so why not use it?
... also, as an aside, I like your thinking for getting past the slimes in 4-4; how you use the little alcove the bonus capsule is in as a place to bounce your shots to the last two. The "intended" way I went about solving the slimes myself? Triggering the pitfall before fluttering back up, then hitching a ride on the beetle! Somewhat inspired by how you more easily handle the lever fruit in 1B-1.
Somehow the Thief felt easier than most bosses....? I'm not very sure, felt like a number of my deaths were just dumb oopsies.
The Thief being a bit easier than other bosses was SEMI-intentional; after all, he's been doing a lot of running instead of turning to face you before, and would've tried escaping again had he not gotten cornered at the bottom of the bunker. However, I suppose the Curly boss AI is just a somewhat easy boss to fight once you get good at it! I was liking how the usage of Ballos lightning would drown out the sound of the Thief winding up his Machine Gun, too, as you go through his phases.
I'm also a little surprised the final boss didn't have a second phase? Felt like a very good nice and tight fight though so I can't complain.
As for the final boss, I was somewhat tempted to do something with a second phase, but I also figured that fighting through its first health bar was difficult to do as it was when taking into account the floor lasers, the constant projectiles from the boss, and the little soul flames homing in on you throughout the fight. Something you gotta keep in mind, too, is that the player could have decided to get as far as the final boss with a Level 3 not-Snake and Level 3 not-Fireball instead of a Level 3 not-Polar Star... or, if they're playing like BLink did (who inspired an achievement by doing so), not having used a single bonus capsule and thus having only Level 1 weapons! At 500 HP, that's a lot of shots to land while not taking any damage.
... but who knows, maybe I could get away with cutting down its primary health bar and splitting it into two phases or such? I'd have to really think about what else I could add to the arena/boss that wouldn't turn it into a clusterfuck...
Also remember what I said about how I felt lucky with my manner of beating the Bone (Lord)? I guess it got me an achievement?
Also, huh, that's odd. Because you went into the fight with Bone (Lord) while possessing the not-Fireball, you shouldn't have gotten the achievement for that. I must've messed up some of the TSC somewhere? Maybe a wrong flag? Actually, something was definitely wrong with the Achievement Room since "Get Dunked On!" showed up twice. Oops! I'll be looking into it shortly.
EDIT: And apparently all I messed up was having an <ITJ jump to the wrong event. You did get the intended achievement for finding the Crab Figurine ("An Unfinished Friend!"), but it was being displayed as "Get Dunked On!".
