A pleasant surprise! Based on how you described your own game, I was expecting something awful and unfinished. Turns out, its actually really fun. While it doesn't adhere to the theme amazingly well, it was still an enjoyable experience to me.
A simple change would have made it on theme far more, if the player couldn't stop moving. That way you would have limited control of your character and the rest of the game would feel more hectic as a result, much like the original pac-man that you're emulating.
The art was fantastic and the audio design was perfect for what you were trying to do. The fixes this needs were relatively minor. The gears looked like they were part of the background, and took me dying at least twice before I realised that was what was killing me.
Additionally, the timer seemed to serve no purpose, as I was always respawned if it expired, with all of the dots in their same positions prior to the death. I assume the aim was to give the player a hard time limit, but it was either bugged or unfinished.
In any case, I totally got what you were going for, and I think it's a lot better than you gave yourself credit for. Try not to talk yourself down, you never know how much other people will enjoy your work.