Europeans have y and z swapped places because special in german the z is more needed then y. So x and z are not beside but needed to be used here with small and trigger finger.
imo this is 1 of the few games id also nearly instantly ask for a save, tho at least i tried it 1st. got to stage 1-2 died and knew there was going to b a stage 1-3 mayb more. i knew i wouldnt beat the last mini stage in only around an hr and preferred to skip the agony of trying to beat the entire 9+ mini stage game like that. sadly it has the arcade style save system, tho with 1 life for super hard mode, not the good kind of difficulty we used to get. :/