First off, I love the Castlevania 2 vibes. It was my introduction to the series, so I'm a big fan. You used external art well. I also really liked how you implemented the stair movement. You clearly have a good starting point.
To improve this entry for SMVM, these are the things I would think about implementing:
- I would increase the walk speed a little bit. The sprint speed felt perfect, but walking was just too slow in comparison.
- Make room entrances/exits more clear to the player. I only learned that there were more rooms because I accidently moved into the right spot. One way you can do this is by setting the camera's limits to the used rect size of the tilemap. You could also just put a placeholder sprite.
- Look into implementing "coyote jump." There was a room where I had so much trouble making it to the third platform. Coyote jump give the player a little bit of time to jump after leaving an edge. Its a fraction of a second, but makes platforming feel much smoother.
- Unless you like it the way it is, I'd advise applying gravity during the air attack. It felt a little off to me to be able to slow fall by continuous attacking
Overall, I can tell you have a solid starting point. I just wanted to add my thoughts since you plan on continuing work on this game. Congrats on submitting!