Overall it's a game with great bones, but it feels unfinished. It reminds a little bit of Mega Man. I got the game for 79¢ and the gameplay is vibrant, fun, and fluid, however, it's underwhelming and odd in some respects. I should also note that I'm not the best at 2D platformers for the record.
First, there's no bosses, at least none that I saw in the half hour I played. Sometimes it feels like it's ramping up to something, but then it's just more of the same enemies and platforming. It would be a much better game if there were some particularly tough enemies sprinkled throughout, as most enemies are just fodder. Despite this, the progression of difficulty is good, excluding how powerups affect it.
Next, there's no save mechanic, once you leave the game you have to restart. There's checkpoints, and they're spaced out pretty fairly, but they only act as a point to return to when your character dies, not a save point. This would be fine if I could tell how far I am into it, but my first session was roughly half an hour, and I have no idea if I was even close to finishing the game. I understand this is how games used to function, and the creator may be trying to emulate that, but save states were a revolutionary mechanic in games for a reason in my opinion. Also, I'm relatively sure there was no warning of this, which, as a player, it's something that would have been good to know.
Finally, the powerups. You can come across them in precarious spots, at the end of a difficult section, or in hidden rooms. That is all fun and good; their placement feels natural, but sometimes you get quite a few at once, which can feel cheap, but that's not a horrible issue. The real issue lies in how some of the powerups function. There's a powerup which makes your blaster/arm canon/whatever fire 3 shots instead of 1, which lowers the difficulty to an insane degree. All powerups, even some you start with, can be lost through damage. This includes platforming mechanics, namely double jump and floating, but they can easily be regained. Then, once you have all the powerups, any new powerup grants you a brief period of invincibility. This all culminates in the player getting too powerful too quick, being able to bypass most obstacles with no issue, especially if they chain invincibility periods. They then pass everything with ease until you find something that is actually a little difficult, then it's like hitting a brick wall, your damage is cut to 1/3, your jumping mechanics are stripped away, and you die in 1 hit. Suddenly it goes from super easy, to super hard, absolutely ruining the difficulty progression.
I think the creator is skilled because the art, controls, and mechanics are all smooth, however it makes me wonder how much feedback they actually got on this game before releasing it to market, because I'd absolutely consider this a rip off at the full price of $4.99.
