Nice entry! It's snappy, the power ups make sense (though I don't know that I figured out what the sticks do), and in true metroidvania style, allow you to go through the same areas in new ways. The art is fun, and surprisingly I was able to make the keyboard with mouse aim work for me, which is a first!
Some small nitpicks that didn't work for me:
- I'm not a fan of having enemies outside the camera's movement area that can attack the player. If the camera is restricted, I think the enemies should have blocked line-of-sight, be disabled, or otherwise be restricted in shooting at the player. This happens in one area where there's a shooting mushroom on the right-hand side of a camera area, and it can shoot at the player on the left-hand side of the adjacent camera area.
- Similarly having platforming sections at the top of camera areas the trigger a camera-area switch every time the player jumps is disorienting and sometimes dizzying. I'd look for ways to move the platforming down, increase the height of the camera area or move the platforming to the bottom of the camera area above. (Apologies if this feedback is hard to parse. In my engine I call these areas "rooms", but not knowing what you might call them, I thought room might be confusing. I'm happy to trie to clarify more if you need/want.)
- Would love to have a prompt that tells me what I just picked up.
Kudos for a finished piece, and a fun one at that!