I thoroughly enjoyed many aspects of this game, from the eerie space-music to the difficulty and navigation to speedrunning. This project is, in my opinion, a very unique and enjoyable project, and it feels very polished in many aspects. The diverse number of gimmicks and tools, paired with the requirement of the player to balance their stats provides for a very intense but pleasant experience. Additionally, I think that the inclusion of a speedrun timer adds a lot of depth to a otherwise slow and straightforward game: optimizing movement and routing each level was really exciting and interesting for me.
A few nitpicks I had while playing:
1. Firstly, I feel that the leaderboard on the main screen should be more obvious, and should lead to another page (since text in the UI tends to overlap).
2. I think that some levels feel a bot too open, which makes the game drag.
3. Finally, a bug I found... I play with the Arrow Keys and Space, and when hitting walls at some angles, the ship will constantly shift its direction (around 8º/sec). This can only be fixed by pressing the A or D keys.
I will quickly leave my opinions on each level here:
| Tutorial | Very good tutorial, maybe a bit on the hard side. Great for speedrunning, but also for getting a feel for the game. |
| Level 1 | Solid first course, but again somewhat on the hard side. A fun track to speedrun when you've optimized the movement. |
| Level 2 | The gimmick introduced is great, but the final section is way too unforgiving. For other players, I suggest not grabbing the rocket-jets. |
| Level 3 | Feels like a bonus stage, or something pulled straight out of Mario Kart. Very enjoyable to speedrun |
| Level 4 | Quite a difficult final level, maybe a bit too much so. I enjoyed playing it, but got a bit frustrated at T̴͚̅ḧ̶̯́e̵̔ ̷P̶̖̏â̷̗r̷̙̓t̸ |
Overall, I loved the pixelated aesthetic, and combined with great music and solid theme/gimmicks, this project was very well executed. I really love how the movement simulates outer space, and how you incorperated the "Overheating" concept. I would rate this a 4.5/5 if I could :)