[Coda]

Upon reflection, I'm willing to consider adding a button press to start each life because I agree some breathing room might be beneficial and the pause function isn't the friendliest way to address it; the rapid-fire die-and-retry was good when the game was nothing but a high-score challenge but now that there's a life counter that's not so appealing.

Finally: Choco... If you don't like it, then give up and stop complaining. The only one complaining about the actual MECHANICS is you. I acknowledge there's a control issue and I AM looking for a good way to address it.

Your appeal to authority falls flat, too. I've also been playing platformers longer than you have and this isn't my first time writing one. I've read through detailed decompilation of how Sonic 3's physics work. I've fixed bugs in Unity3D's platformer template. I've reverse-engineered Robot Unicorn Attack (which this game resembles more than any other game out there) and Cave Story.

So if you want to compare and criticize, go play Robot Unicorn Attack (especially Heavy Metal Edition) for a while and then come back, because 1980s-1990s platformers are totally NOT going to be good inspirations for endless-runner controls.