Well, I've started chapter 2 now, and... I give up. The ball is too fast for me. I just can't react quickly enough. (Also, I seem to have a poor grasp on bouncy ball physics, lol. I didn't even get out of the very first cave after the Nicklas sprite left me to my own devices.) :-(
Ah well. More time for Knytt Stories level building, I suppose. Though I would have loved to play this. There aren't enough exploration games out there... or maybe not enough exploration games for people with slow reflexes. (Or, more precisely: not enough gamers with slow reflexes to make that kind of thing a viable niche. And the people who do have slow reflexes, if they play games at all, don't play exploration games.)