Absolutely outstanding entry!
I love the ascetic, definitely gives me strong N64 vibes with some Playstation 1 bits here and there. The graphics and music capture that era perfectly.
The player movement feels excellent and very deep. The game gets more and more fun as you unlock more. The animations make everything feel very satisfying. The level design also complements the movement with consistently challenging and fun platforming sections.
I'm amazed at how large the game feels. I played for a couple of hours and still have not quite managed to finish it. (Although I think I'm pretty close to the end. I'll definitely be coming back to finish it of at some point.)
A few minor criticisms:
- The enemies are not quite as interesting as the rest of the game. There's a couple of standouts like the sword which are fun to fight, but I typically found myself able to completely ignore most of the enemies and didn't really need to put in any effort to avoid them. (Feels a bit silly making this criticism given the time restriction. I think the selection of enemies is very impressive for a Jam entry.).
- Not having a map led to me doing a bit more aimless wandering than I'd like. I think I spend at least 30 minutes trying to figure out what I'd missed before finding the stomp / high-jump ability which would have been entirely mitigated with a map of some kind.
- Some areas feel a little blocky, lacking in detail. I think the bridge is a really good example of an area that feels geometrically interesting and also has great level design. It would be amazing if all areas of the game were similarly visually interesting. (Again, I realise its a bit ridiculous to expect more than you already have, given the Jam time limit.)
Overall I'm completely blown away by what you've achieved. If you choose to expand on it, I'd love to play a more fleshed out and polished version of this. If not, I look forward to whatever you make next! Hope you win the jam, full points. :)