>in the specific: when big cherry splits, it spawns two little cherry and an explosion that damage you in you are in range, also cherry themselves hurt on contact, so you should never go near him in the first place
The explosion looks identical to the one from your weapon, which doesn't hurt you, and doesn't make any (noticeable) sound. It's hard to even tell it's there. I think I've mentioned the same issue before with the slimes. It can also hurt you through the platform in the center. You should probably add a LoS check.
>Btw you have any opinion on the powerups? my tutorial about them was very bad, so you might have missed them entirely.
I only noticed them after beating it. They're all pretty basic and don't seem like they'd make a huge difference with how easy the game is, so I didn't bother testing them.