EDIT: I had to up my rating from 3 to 4 because the final stretch was EPIC! The black hole part, man, wow.

There are many flaws in this game, but for a first-time project by a small indie studio, it is pretty good! There's a lot to like about it. The graphics are good, I really like the laser aesthetic, and the music is quite great too.

I love the self-aware science fantasy storyline too. I like that it doesn't take itself too seriously and delivers some great jokes that caught me by surprise. The mute friend one comes to mind, I literally laughed out loud.

As for gameplay, it is good for the most part, but there are some serious flaws that draw it back quite a lot. In my opinion, you can either have a Sonic-like "lose collectibles if you get hit, die if you get hit without collectibles" system, or you can have enemies shooting at you from all sides with perfect aim, but you can't have both. While some levels are fun and fair, many others are either trivial or outright unfair.

The trivial ones are the ones where enemies only come from one direction, and the collectibles are so abundant it is impossible to run out. Thankfully, those are usually only the beginning levels of each section, so that's forgivable.

As for the unfair ones, the Arnor arc comes to mind. See, I think the Arnor missions would be the most fun of all if we had a healthbar instead of that Sonic damage system, as the frantic ascent amidst enemy fire is pretty epic. However, given that enemies are on all sides, and you have to keep going up faster and faster, a lot of it comes down to luck, as the timing and positioning of the enemies when they shoot become a way too decisive factor when they can kill you in one or two hits. There are also some slow moving platforms that are a bit annoying to time when you also have to mind the ascending liquid, but those did not happen often enough to be an issue.

Thankfully, the main Rasternauts levels are really good. I had fun with them, even if certain parts were rather frustrating due to the fact that enemies respawn almost immediately if you walk away from the part of the screen they spawn on. Also, the Frank arc is super fun and satisfying throughout, albeit a bit on the easy side.

Anyway, overall, this game reflects to me an energetic small team trying their best, and the result is a sweet little lovechild that is imperfect, but still pretty cool. There is a lot I'd change, but I'm even less experienced than the devs of this game, so I dunno.

ALSO one last thing: it'd be better if we could hold down the fire button instead of having to spam it. Having to spam makes the game more tiresome than it has to be.