ITEMS!

[GaryCXJk]

I'd also say Dragoons out, but more of a programmer's standpoint, as well as a spriter's standpoint. I imagine it would be pretty bothersome to add special mechanics just for one item. It's not all that hard to do, it's just too much work. Also, it adds one more sprite to do, the Dragoon back sprite, meaning, spriting the character from behind, sitting on the Dragoon.

What kind of special mechanics?
Pick all three pieces, the character will fly off with the dragoon (three sprites, one of each parts merging together, one more for the dragoon itself facing the screen, one for the character sitting on it facing the screen) and then just add the aim thing, and then two sprites - one of the dragoon facing in the opposite direction of the screen, and another one of the character sitting on the dragoon facing in the opposite direction of the screen, dashing incredibly fast, knocking the foe out of the screen (we would have to cut that special zoom when the dragoon hits someone though). It doesn't seem hard to me.

I didn't say it was hard, I said it was bothersome. You do need to keep track for everybody that either one has one of the items, that all items are still on-screen, and that all items only occur once. Next to that, simply adding anything that requires screen aiming needs special programming work. While you could just reuse the code for the grenade launcher and possible stage hazards, it would still be some added thing. Not to mention making it visually appealing. You'll need to calculate in the zooming AND parallaxing movement to give it the feeling that something is actually flying towards the stage rather than resizing onto the stage.