I was trying a few Rare games while talking to my brother and not really paying attention to the games. However, this one was very interesting and technically impressive for a NES game. I ended up playing an hour before dying horribly on the second level.
I have learned that you can use momentum to pick up the big rocket-looking item in the second level, which gives you a boost upgrade that lets you carry the other items more easily.
Screenshots marked with 🍒 are created by syltefar and are considered public domain, free to use for anything. If you want to, you can note where you found it and link to this page.