Please clarify...could time be saved by skipping the time spent with the cat suit slipping on the flag pole? Couldn't you just find another item somewhere, swap it with the cat suit right before the flag pole, and get to "Course Clear" quicker? It would shave seconds off the end of each level. Am I missing something?

I think that would be faster, but it's so easy to get hit in this game that pretty much all runners want two cat suits for safety, so I think it's just nobody has thought of it?

It wouldn't save time because it takes about 1 second to switch powerups because of the animation. Doing that twice per level would take more time than the flagpole animation.

I don’t know if anyone has thought of this but if you go in a pipe/door and it takes you to a spot above the flag pole maybe as you jump for the flag and maybe there was a way to change to a fire flower in mid air and grab the flag pole last second.

Although you don’t need a door/pipe to get to a higher position than the flag pole an example would be on 3-3 when your outside and as you jump you can maybe switch to fire flower then quickly grab it.