Thanks! I wanted to give NekoDanmaku 6 stars for graphics, so I very much appreciate the praise :)
I'll give the 8 angle tap-direction idea a try, though I worry that will make it harder to do fine controls. As an alternative, do you think adding more steps to the rotation animation would help?
Thanks for the feedback, Deexenigma! I glad the graphical tutorials made sense :D Totally agree on the sound - after playing some of the other (excellently audio'd) entries, I realise how much atmosphere even simple sounds add. Can you explain more about what you mean regarding the working space?