Yep safe to say I am the champion! I have a smooth maxed out 999,999. I even did it before the end of round 4! Now try and beat THAT one!
Oh and btw the max number of lives you can have at any one point is 20, it won't let you have any more than that, at least not 1-ups from points.
As you can see from my post above, it most certainly is possible-- you just have to collect straight 1-ups. The game stops awarding them for points though at 20, you're correct there.
So tell us-- what all did you do to max out the score, and how long did it take you?
Nat, it's a little exploitable secret my dad discovered years back when we first beat the game. There is this one enemy in the icy stage, can't recall which part exactly, but you'll know the location when there are those thunder clouds floating up overhead and there is a row of breakable ice with water underneath, that is the only enemy in the whole game that I know of that regenerates indefinitely. To make it even easier it's one of those scuba dinosaurs in the water right by a wall. So you essentially juggle him on your head for the points, go forwards, then back and viola he's back! Repeat for a maxed out score. Using this method I don't think it took over 3 hours play time max.
So now that you all know my dirty little secret go max out your bonk's adventure scores!