Yeah it's tough as nails, but the NES Mario games are more even more unforgiving than this and people don't (always) complain so much about those. This us one of the best and most creative platformer ever made and is still a ton of fun. Pitiful rating here.
In order to play this game you have to metabolize its internal "flow" and/or clock mechanism, you have to perform very specific movements in the right time frame, it's almost like Classical Ballet in that aspect. A wonderful 2D game, albeit I feel it sowed my preference for ultra-hard games, tough.
Pretty good though