Been reading the reviews and thinking about the controls... I typically like having a jump button in games but while playing I WAS wondering about using the UP arrow to jump instead. You could add support for both UP arrow AND a jump button so people can choose either.
I also did find myself instinctively pressing down to drop through plafforms, although this doesn't need to be an ability. Maybe it's problematic because people do instinctively try it and end up dashing instead... What if C makes you DASH if you aren't carrying an enemy and THROW if you are carrying an enemy? That would let players focus on tapping C twice to complete the grab / throw process, less likely to get mixed up with different buttons.
Also the intro could have a "Press Z to SKIP" note in the bottom corner to make sure players are aware.
Love the music and art! Only other issue is whether the difficulty is too oldschool - which plenty of people like - but nowadays I prefer something where I get infinite chances to complete a level, vs a limited set of lives to complete all levels.... Or maybe some hybrid where you have limited lives, but every 5 levels reaches a checkpoint you can continue from infinitely.