If I'm not too lazy I'll share my route with you JXQ (I'll have to write a whole lot, since it's very different from yours), there are still a couple of things I need fix first, or if we could look into that together, you might get a couple of ideas.
I actually thought I'd start practicing this game, since I thought I might wanna do a demo of it later, but it didn't go too well, but for fun purposes I'll share it with you. :)
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/547/
I havn't compared it to any other video, but I'd guess it's totally crap. :)
You might have to take another look into the icebeam/spring ball concern before you decide when to pick the ice beam up. I might look into that as well, we'll see.
Also, I was browsing around the Metroid2002 forums for ideas, and came across a video of someone shooting a charged plasma shot at Draygon and then started to rapidly switch X-ray on and off, Draygon died in one shot, did the X-ray scope have anything to do with this, and if so, will it work on Ridley?