oh god I thought i'm the only one with this problem. no matter how fast i press it, it just won't work....
Nope, it's been giving me that problem since they dropped Act 2. I got through it once like, an hour after it dropped, but every time I tried to play the game afterwards it just gave up during the space mashing sequence. Vixel said they'd include a code to skip it over a month ago, but still hasn't done it by the looks of things.