I played that game a long, long time ago, on my first computer, a 8086, in its French version "The adventures of Moktar" (a character from a French humorist, "Lagaf' "). The game is the same, only the main character, and his beloved, change graphics, I think.
So, this game IS hard, but there are no insta-deaths unless you hit a killing floor/ceiling. You have bonuses (the diamond-in-a-square things you can see in some screenshots) which give you hit points back, and, when you get 10 or 20 you didn't need (can't remember exactly how many - those are called EXTRA BONUSES), you convert them to an extra life.
There are a lot of hidden secret passages, which you take the same way you'd use a door ("lie down" for a few seconds in front of it), so be prepare to try a lot of windows, chimneys, or whatever, because they can let you avoid whole parts of levels (there's one in level 1, if memory serves, allowing you to bounce from platform to platform in the sky, and reach the exit without having to fight)
Also, you need to hit enemies to kill them, but not necessarily by "flinging" things to their heads: You may also fling things UP, and, if they come back on the enemy's head, he'll die WITHOUT the object being destroyed.
And some enemies (like the big, muscular guys of the first levels, or the bees/flys of those same levels), can ALSO be picked up, either when walking (you gotta go REAL close, get down, and use action, like you would for a normal object. If you're not close enough, you won't catch the enemy; too close, and you'll be hit - yes, that's HARD to do), or after you killed it, when he's doing his death animation (jump up, and fall down offscreen). The second way is MUCH easier, but I can't recall if you have to look at the enemy's back, in that case. What is certain is that you gotta be under the enemy, and press action at the right moment.
The MOST DIFFICULT level, I think, is level 9 (egyptian). Deadly jumps just before level end. Good luck !
