I like the idea of having to balance vertical scaling with movement speed by dropping down. I didn't feel that dropping down to a faster route was often an optimal strategy though. The slow movement speed was still fast enough to be faster than dropping down and climbing back up would be, and the fast movement speed didn't feel fast enough to get out of the way of falling objects. I think a little tweaking of numbers here and there would go a long way. Solid concept and adorable art style!