Two reviews here say that this is hard. I haven't played this one since the early 90s, but I recall that all my friends reactions was "this is too easy, it is a scam of a game". And I recall thinking that at last Dinamic made a game with fair difficulty.

Was I playing a different version?

I can't say for certain. I played it a lot when I was younger so learned a lot of the game. I wouldn't say it would be easy for a beginner though.

The real enemy is the control scheme.

You can't control the jump distance and a pixel off means you drop to oblivion. You need coins to increase in power, but you have to crouch on every single one of them, while firing at mobs all the darn time.

So it is hard, but gets easier once you learn to play, then it's a breeze.