I synced the walking animation framerate to the character's movement speed on my own game, and I'm pretty happy with the effect. I'm sure you won't have much trouble figuring it out yourself if you decide to do it.
WASD+JKL is probably what I would use for my own game, if I had the option. I suppose there's something to be said for allowing people to customize the controls. I look forward to moving on from PICO-8 so I can avoid the control restrictions, among others.