The way quick drop works is confusing, as mashing down doesn't really work, only holding it does, and the game isn't very responsive to pressing or releasing down. It does make the match-3 a little more interesting as you have to choose between holding down to get more blocks on the screen and reacting to what you get. Since the player's healing & damage per turn doesn't increase, while enemy damage does, the game eventually gets very slow as you have to heal more and more, and it takes more attack turns to defeat an enemy. At level 11 enemy damage and healing are very close. I don't know if enemy damage ever outpaces healing because I didn't bother continuing my run much further.
Bug report: if you die after getting the second-to-last checkpoint (after going down the elevator), but with the elevator in the "up" position, the next time you enter the elevator you'll be stuck in the door.
Also, would you consider adding an alternative control scheme? Something like left/right for movement, button 1 for jump/jetpack (depending on whether you're standing or in the air), button 2 for drill? (I'm passing the suggestion along from someone else, it's not my idea, but I do think it would be an improvement.)
I spent some time trying to optimize the reactor, and I wasn't able to find a better order, so that's what's in the record now. Also, today I found this amazing skip (will upload a better any% run with it soon): https://clips.twitch.tv/madewokherd/CrazyGaurStrawBeary
Hm, I've seen the warning lights on other screens but I guess I didn't notice them in the reactor, or the room leading up to there. I also found that, in the room leading up to the reactor, the middle zapper will go off for a very short time when I get there, and it's not safe to go through.
I can't imagine playing this game without checkpoints. I'd probably have given up.
Some sort of warning as to when the vertical zapper things are going to turn on would make this feel more fair, I think. Without that, you just have to memorize the pattern, and also know that rooms reset when you re-enter them.
Running the Linux x64 version. Fullscreen mode doesn't seem to work right, it just unfullscreens itself when the menu shows up.
It feels good to play, but I'm no good at explaining why things feel good to play. So instead, here are the things I'm not happy with.
I don't understand what the half-circle powerups do.
Mashing the button to fire at the maximum rate is annoying. There's no reason I should have to do that in a game in 2015. In fact, I'm not sure there's ever a reason to NOT fire (except at the very beginning when you can only have a few shots on screen at a time), so I wonder if a fire button is even necessary.
I think you need to be more deliberate about contrast - make sure the enemies and their bullets, at least, stand out against the background. Otherwise, I can't really see them unless I'm looking right at them. In particular, purple on brown doesn't work so well.
You have enemies coming from all sides of the screen, and they move very fast (sometimes faster than the player's ship). Short of memorizing the level so you can anticipate them, there doesn't seem to be a reliable way to avoid them. Maybe I'm just not good enough, but it doesn't feel right to me to be killed by a collision out of nowhere. Perhaps an arrow at the screen edge indicating when enemies will spawn would alleviate this?
