I finally fixed* The Bouncers in 1.09 - SpongeBob Lights Camera Pants: Take 2 Mod

I use "fixed" loosely because this new version potentially created a new problem.
I wanted to make these changes since v1.0. Stages 1 and 4 in 1.09 are still the same as 1.0, but the other two stages finally have more engaging package patterns while still keeping a faster pace. Your experience with this new version may vary. The game can't decide whether to mix things up mid-stage. You might get just a one-two pattern for an entire stage, or you might have to do two different patterns multiple times.
As much as I like the new patterns with the new speeds, this isn't beginner-friendly anymore. I watched several 4-player playthroughs of the original mini-game and they all had trouble with it. Imagine how hard they'll find this new version. It was made like this to address common criticisms with this mini-game. One of the biggest criticisms was that it was incredibly tedious. In v1.0, I tried to address this by increasing the speed of packages for all the stages. However, that created another problem where the last two stages had no interesting movement patterns. At the time, I had no clue how to change the spawn frequencies mid-game, but I found a solution.
I found some odd code that's supposed to stop spawning the packages for the rest of a stage after a certain amount has spawned. For instance, packages would have stopped spawning in Stage 1 after 15 have spawned, then in Stage 2 after 27 (including the 15 that spawned in Stage 1). The code is never used because the counter for the number of spawned packages doesn't work for some reason. The code also incorrectly expects the stage numbers to start at 1 instead of 0. Stage 1 has a value of 0 and Stage 4 has a value of 3, but the code expects Stage 1 to equal 1.
The unused code gave me enough room to replace with new code that adds functions handling the spawn frequencies for each of the last three stages. The code I added has subpar optimization, but what can I do when all that's possible is replacing hex code? As you can imagine, it's a nightmare learning how it all works.
While I fixed the problem with movement patterns in 1.09, the newest problem introduced here is that the learning curve is much steeper. It's much harder for newer players to get into this mini-game, especially when it gets to Stage 2. Stage 1 already looks confusing despite the slow speed, but I wanted to introduce the complex patterns earlier so that players are a bit more prepared for what's to come in the next stages. Plus, the group of three packages in the original game is uninteresting, lasts for too long, and repeats multiple times. I don't want to wait 15-75 seconds until I actually have to start focusing.
Take 2 Mod: • Post
Other LCP Shenanigans: • SpongeBob Lights Camer...

[@ObsoIeteQuality]

I looked at several 4-player playthroughs of this game and many players still had trouble with the original mini-game. Maybe this new version is way too hard.
EDIT: Just in case, I updated the mod to 1.09a to make earning 5000 popularity points easier. Lower scores should receive more popularity points than before.

[@liammeech3702]

I used to play the Ps2 version all the time as a kid (single-player, of course lol)