i use a xbox 360 controller. What is your screen resolution ? I'm going to do a fix soon to make it easier for those not on a 16:9 setup (about 5-10% of players)

examples of 16:9 : 1366x768, 1920x1080

examples of problematic resolution : 1280x1024

I'm using 1280x720.

oh well, guess you just don't have much 2d platformer skills.

that persian princess, i saw some people taking up to 20 minutes to beat it when it was their 3rd level played ever. i also saw other players who are much more skilled at 2d platformers in general do it in less then 3 minutes (with the same previous experience with of the game).

Your experience will vary a lot depending on how used to skill based 2d platformers you are.

I'm trying to think of ways to lessen the gap with things like perks (larger vision, faster movement, little extra gas, slowdown mode, more efficient jetpack (faster acceleration), etc)

However i'm still unsure what the player would do to unlock those perks. I'm also worried it might cheapen the experience for the more skilled players. Obviously there's ways to please both sides but I'm still searching the best solution (if I ever implement one. Don't take the fact that I'm considering this work as a promise that I will).

Faster reflexes than I got. So if I had one thing that I think would help me the most it would be to slow the gameplay down slightly.