Looks like from a little practice that '9' is the official amount of hits. Maybe I just miscounted on my 28 PB. And I somehow got double hits twice on my 29 PB, hilariously.

So. The final boss (King Drool III). Unless I'm missing something, it seems wildly inconsistent. My 29 PB had 7 obvious hits/passes, although maybe a couple extra by spinning. My 28 had 10 hits. I've been playing the boss fight and it seems like anything from 7-10 is a possibility. Has anybody figured out the hitbox yet?!

That might be fun, although I don't think I'd play them. I hate the bonus levels. :D

For sure, super nostalgic for me! It’d be fun to get some more into the game and do a SpeedRunsLive race or something.

I just started running this game too and it seems like collecting the smileys would be much slower. But that's just a guess as well. It's awesome we both started running at the same time though!