Thanks for the feedback!
"when you die and go to the menu and start a new game, it goes back to the score count screen"
That sounds like a bug. I had a lot of issues with the comic book style scene changes and made a few too many shortcuts for time. I already spent a week of the jam working on the menu instead of the game. XD
Stuff falling when you shoot it is intentional, a lot of the gameplay is based on Jazz Jackrabbit 2, which does the same thing with collectibles. Just an interaction I always liked and wanted to recreate for absolutely no gameplay reason, lol.