Ooooo, Caravan shmup!
My impressions are that the weapon selection that was put in is very well-balanced: it feels like there's a really good mix of speed and shot power from the DDP-style laser to the nice Raiden spread shot to the six-way to the straight vulcan -- very good job. Enemy placement is very well-done, and once I got that the name of the game is to point-blank the hell out of everything, I really started to enjoy it.
However, there is one VERY important caveat: and that is that the game crashes when you die, which is a huuuuuuge shame.
Also, I agree with your focus on making a tighter game over incorporating the limitation in a shoe-horned way in a detriment to the gameplay. In an ideal world, both could happen, but I respect your decision.