It's definitely a lot more forgiving than a lot of NES games with regard to death at least. When you lose all your lives, you still get to keep everything you've accomplished. You just have to restart from the opening screen again which might be very far from where you died depending on how far you get. <_<
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Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
http://i.neoseeker.com/n/2/nintendo_quality_seal.jpg