I’m glad you liked the feel, that’s definitely what we were going for, totally inspired by the original NES version!
I didn’t have a lot of time to play test the whole thing, but yeah, the Skree falling without any kind of warning was definitely the first thing I noticed and “fixed” by adding the pattern. Glad you understood it!
As for the directional shooting… Mauricet actually originally made animations for it, but I prioritised other aspects of the game first, and I didn’t feel comfortable adding it and maybe breaking things in the process!
Thanks for playing!