Dire Dire Docks is the smallest "full" level in that game, I think (by "full", I mean ones you get 7 stars from, not the ones like the secret aquarium or "Wing Mario Over the Rainbow" or the cap course where you only get one.) But I found it difficult to get the stars from the first room without being sucked into the whirlpool.

Well, actually, I wouldn't use that thesis as is, because after my disaster of a Contra review, I have vowed to never even acknowledge the "majority" opinion of a game in a formal review, let alone rebut it)

What makes you say that? I thuoght that review was great! And I totally agree that Contra is nowhere near as hard as people make it out to be. I once looped it 5 times in a row, without using the 30-life code, and then I just turned it off.
Round up the pizza delivery boys... We're going in!!