The real reason this has only 1 life.

[Deejay]

It's interesting that you can rocket through the DizzyAGE version of Treasure Island so quickly. In Clover you can't die, and it's amazing the difference that makes. The original XBLIG version had roughly the same number of puzzles and items as Magicland Dizzy, and a larger map.

On average it took people about <6 hours to complete, which is far, far quicker than it took me to complete Magicland, that's for sure! I think if there ever was a remake of Dizzy, it'd have to have many, many more puzzles than the originals. Just hopefully not split up into levels like Crystal Kingdom :/

[Bag of Magic Food]

Say if you dropped the snorkel underwater, you would instantly drown again if you restarted in the water.
But even if you started on the beach. You wouldn't be able to get back in the water again. The game would be impossible to finish.

I'm a little surprised that that situation didn't occur to the programmers earlier. Dropping the snorkel in the water is an easy beginner's mistake, right? I guess they were just so engrossed in the design of the puzzles that they didn't put enough thought into what happens after Dizzy loses a life.

Still, I would have thought one of the later ports of the game could have resolved the issue and returned the extra lives by making certain items teleport back to their original locations if they were left in places those items were used to reach. Like the pogo could come back if it was left on the island you have to pogo to along with another key item. Making the far beach an alternate continue point might have been nice too, and could have solved the "snorkel on the far beach" problem. But I suppose the original release was so successful, nobody really wanted to change the game's formula too much then.