The new version is a major improvement, but some stuff still seems to be a bit off, at least judging from my own memory.
For one, wasn't there an ally's healthbar displayed somewhere on the screen (probably above the enemy) to let you know how much time you have left to rescue them before they are digested?
And two, the death animations themselves feel a bit wonky. Sometimes it appears like they play too fast or are skipped entirely. At other times, especially when the other player's character is in an unreachable spot for the enemy at the time they perma-vore another character, the final digestion animation doesn't play at all and the monster just keeps sitting there.
Now don't get me wrong, some of these are somewhat useful when one wants to enjoy the fantasy of standing by idly as their ally is digested, but at the time they feel more like a broken system...
Perhaps as a trade-off once those are fixed we could get some sort of a debug menu where we can unlock all stages and characters as well as set their level and HP to max and custom value respectfully?
I know that I for one would love either an animation gallery or a cheated game mode where I could like 10x the player health (both the standing and knocked-down) so that all animations play longer and give me more time to enjoy them! :P