A couple interesting mechanics and a gag that does totally pay off in the end for a fun little experience.
PROS:
- Really like the Tetris block slotting of skills for equipment management. Obviously tough to balance within the scope of a jam, but definitely worth fleshing out further in this or other games you make.
- Level design was clean and intuitive and organically guided me towards the next powerup I needed (while also providing ample checkpoints for respawn).
- Controls were nicely simple even with new powerups accumulated so I always felt confident in my ability to use my equipment.
CRITIQUE:
- I wasn't fond of the "Attack" skill implementation. It forces a lot of waiting rather than pro-active action from players based on the constant motion. It would be nice to have more direct agency in the use of the attack.
- A couple rooms felt like "lots of enemies for the sake of lots of enemies". It's a bit nit-picky to say really, but when a room feels crowded it makes you question why so many of them were necessary.
- In these kind of platforming games it's not uncommon to have pits that will hurt/kill the player so falling off of the screen is often suspect for my intuition. I consequently usually have a player progress upward into a new screen before they ever need to fall downward into a new room to better solidify the idea that "going off the top/bottom of the screen won't necessarily kill you".