The controls are really fun and I love the art style and the tutorial was very effective at teaching the player what to do. It took me a long time to complete the first level and I thought maybe it was just a high score game but once I got used to the movement I didn't struggle too much.
I made it to the first boss fight which honestly was a bit confusing. I didn't really know what the balls on the sticks were but I lost all my health quite quickly. When I died during the boss fight though then nothing happened. I just floated around unable to control anything. I'm not sure if it's because I still had oxygen left because I'm sure when I died before then there was a death screen.
I really like how at the end of each level you get a guaranteed upgrade as well as the opportunity to buy stuff from the shop. That was a really great design choice and it allows the player to always feel like they're progressing while still rewarding the player for doing extra well.
A couple of things didn't feel completely fair. The first one is when you get an upgrade box and it changes your thruster. I would have liked if you were able to choose which thruster you used because otherwise it seems better to just not pick up the box in case you get the leaky thruster.
The only other thing that felt a little disappointing was the combo system. I got a combo of 20 and I was really excited to see what the reward would be but I think it was the same reward as if you get a really small combo.
Overall though the game was really fun and I think there's definitely potential for this to be developed into something bigger post jam. I would pay money to play an adventure exploration game with this character controller.