Amazing entry!
Gameplay wise, I feel like the controls were just challenging enough that I always felt in control despite the space drifting. I think the checkpoints were nicely spaced out, and the different mechanics added together quite nicely, very nicely done! I think I would've also enjoyed the shooting to be incorporated a bit earlier, but I understand it's more dramatic to get it for the boss fight. I liked the heat mechanic and how it gives the game a lot of depth in how you approach it - at first, you're barely getting by while you get used to the controls, but then you can start planning around going faster and sacrificing some heat to dash. Very nicely done, it really works well as a speedrun game because it's easy to get into, but really hard to master.
Themewise, I think it works really well. I would've liked some sort of overheating sort of thing. Maybe like a bigger and more distinct reward for being near max heat (although I don't think I ever got to fill the heat bar, so it's completely possible that reward is there and I just missed it), like maybe a few seconds of invulnerability so you can give some more possible tech to people who would play this game over and over to speedrun it and get really optimal.
In terms of aesthetics, I really like what you got going on, the 2 bit sort of aesthetic works really nicely and everything feels really coherent and pretty. I think the polish works to your favor as well, with all of the particle effects and the camera shakes and stuff. Very nice looking game, looks very pretty.
Soundwise, I think the game sounds pretty good in general, although I don't like some of the music choices. I think it was a good choice to go for a synthy sort of vibe, but some songs feel a bit out of place to me, specifically level 1 and level 3. I feel like they don't really have a space vibe that the others do, which is of course subjective but still it's just my two cents, maybe it can be helpful to you
Keep up the great work, really liked this entry.