Might I recommend a sort of "stage 1 forgiveness" system? Specifically, mistakes on stage 1 are free since A: Running out of medals means restarting stage 1, and B: you can just as easily restart the game if you make a mistake early to reset your medal count. By not counting mistakes on stage 1, it can save the player time not having to worry about making mistakes and getting a game over too early because they wasted their attempts on the first stage.
PS:The game is WAY TOO DIFFICULT! I can't even pass stage 2 without loosing too many medals!