So I somehow got the game to reset itself while I was practicing Toad Man's stage. I don't have a video of it, but it happened at the first snail fight. I hit it with a charged buster shot as it was doing it's eye throwing attack and as it was blowing up I was sliding towards the next screen (I was charging another buster at this point). When I reached the screen transition, the snail exploding sound kind of hung and then my game reset back to the SEGA logo. I'm trying to replicate this while recording now. This was on normal difficulty.
edit: Got it on tape
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35_GIz9wv74
Also, I found something that might be useful for a TAS. I somehow manged to despawn one of the guys that light up the hall way in Wily/Quick Man's stage. Here is a video of that
http://www.twitch.tv/dsmon/c/4916012