Thanks SmallTall. Sorry if I sounded a bit harsh before, but you got me just as I was waking up haha. Truth be told I did think about keeping the momentum after planting into a wall, but I kinda liked how it acted as another obstacle, which worked out well considering there's only a few enemies in the game.
I grew up in the era of NES games, which were usually short and brutally difficult games. I think that may have reflected a bit too much.