This game was really fun, it reminds me a lot of Kirby! The tongue grapple mechanic is really interesting, I'm sure the final game would be fun to speedrun. I especially liked the bossfight against the umbrella bug, it had the right amount of mechanics (not too simple, not too over-complicated) and got more tense as the fight went on in a really natural-feeling way! (It might be nice if he flashed white or something like that when he was vulnerable, it took me a little while to realize when I could damage him.)
I found a couple bugs, including one where the pause button checks if it is held instead of just pressed, so if it's held for more than 1 frame it will keep opening and closing, and one where the coins I got at the end of a level for extra time would never stop coming (which may have to do with an issue with the timer, since it wouldn't decrease during the cutscene). These issues might be caused by 144hz displays, since that's what I used to play the game.
Good luck developing the rest of the game, it and the YT devlogs are really great! :)