Thanks for your feedback, I'm glad you enjoy the game!

You may already know this but there is a skip function in the Music Lab to aid with practice, though it's not quite what you're asking for. It doesn't slow the song down, and it's not available on the cartridge songs, but it is useful. In a lab room use the bar at the bottom of the screen and you can begin the song part-way through to be able to practice a particular section a little easier.

I agree with your other point. It's definitely one of the biggest things I wish we could go back and change. The demolition levels and the Habanero boss are a kick in the nuts in terms of replay, largely because they ended up so long and have no skip-ahead.

Please don't consider the below as making excuses - I 100% agree it should be better. But if you'd like some more context on the reasons why it ended up as it is, see below.

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There's always a huge list of things to improve and fix, and ultimately some things get lost that probably shouldn't have. If we'd had more breathing room we might've been able to sort these issues out, but it was an ambitious development with a lot coming together towards the end on a lot of different platforms. It's easy to see now the dust has settled that this is one of the bigger failures.

We did make a variety of changes/improvements to get to the version you're playing. Things were worse, and they got better, but with everything else going on we didn't have time to make some of the bigger adjustments that would've made more difference.

For example you point out that the first 2 sections in the school level are fluff because there's no timer. Originally the timer encompassed all three areas and we dropped it from the first two sections to stop there being pressure on you for the entire level when aiming for a better score. You can at least take your time on those first two rooms and know it isn't hurting your chances. Would've liked to put in a skip so the player can just jump to that last room if they've been there before, but everything goes on a list and only certain things get done.

Similarly the demolition training level - we had it on our list to break those three rooms out into three separate level doors, with each having their own goal time and scoring, but just never got chance to do it.

You're right about the Habanero level, if you're aiming to 3 star it the earlier sections will be cumbersome and (mostly) not contribute. In terms of the music disparity: that segment of Flamenco was specifically picked because it's a relatively easy part of that song. You're right that Flamenco is a ton harder than Jolt City as a song, but I personally don't feel that particular segment of Flamenco is super far beyond other songs in that part of the game.

Again, the decision for the earlier parts of that level to not contribute much to the 3 star was intentional, and came as fairly late adjustment. Since the first sections had a lot of variables it seemed unfair that your encore might be hampered by early stuff like how optimally you laid out the garlic bombs. We increased the scoring scaling for the encore to de-emphasise the early part a lot in the encore score. I understand that does mean it feels like 'fluff' now in the 3 star context.

That level in particular underwent a lot of iteration, and often the focus is making sure it's enjoyable and making sure it's not too punishing in a variety of ways. The unfortunate truth is that the 3-star experience nearly always gets put behind the 1-star experience, and that level was a fair bit of trouble in getting the 1-star experience right.