Very nice looking game!
As mentioned in the comments before, the mechanism stopped working for me on the 2nd level as well, and yes it would be much nicer if you actually had control over when it's engaged.
Good luck!
Nice visuals and controls feel nice.
Although the screen shake is a bit too exaggerated I think and a bit distracting at times even.
And just a bit of feedback for the later versions, fighting the enemies is a bit hard without getting hit yourself, as you need to get really close to them and there isn't really any knock back either.
Overall nice game!