I started to TAS level one this weekend to see what exactly causes the most lag, hat boomeranging, sprite overload, coin grabs. I am interested to see which enemies are best skipped, and which should be killed at close or long range. FWIW it is my first time TASing something, so I am not really expecting stellar results too quickly. Initial analysis are pointing to close up kills unless there is more than 3 enemy on the screen, as close up kills lessen the chance of having to jump and boomeranging the hat. I doubt I am breaking any ground here, but figured I would share what I came across.

The -5.00 on start press seems to line up pretty accurately to when you first see Nick on the screen. I have also had to frame count all my PBs for the same reason as Thee_Deadguy as keyboard splitting definitely adds a smidge of time.