I don't know if it's a glitch or not, but you can empty your death counter if you went back to the main menu. but keep in mind that the game didn't save your progress with a death in the level your trying to finish without dying. So if you died, you can go back to the main menu and press continue as long as the game didn't save your death. if that happens, you'll have to restart the level. so watch out for your death counter when the game saves your progress. Hope this helps (Again I'm not sure if this is a glitch or intended but I recommend you to try it anyway cause it helped me a lot)