wow, im honored to receive such high praise, really means a lot! yeah a lot of my time in the beginning was spent trying to look into a bunch of arcade games trying to see how they were designed and what similarities they had between each other in terms of their game design philosophies, game behavior, environmental setting, etc (my three main references were Mappy, Burger Time, and Donkey Kong). i was really happy with what i came up with, so i'm glad that you and others were also able to resonate and appreciate the essence that i tried to capture with those old classic games! also glad you liked the surprises, thats what i was going for with the theme! wanted the game to be aberrated by setting up the norm myself and then re-contextualizing that norm in an "unwelcoming" way.
again, thanks so much for playing and taking the time to put out this review, it really means a lot and keeps me motivated in continuing my game dev journey!