the audiovisuals are just perfect, through and through. the title screen is weirdly nostalgic, and even the screen transitions feel completely authentic.

the gameplay is rock solid too, and delightfully brutal. the landing lag from a big jump feels so good. the branching-then-converging level design is slick. the variety in environments, obstacles, and enemies is really impressive for a jam game.

at first I thought only the special pickups gave power, it took me a while to realize that a combined 100 points from small pickups also give power. it’s very punishing to lose power when taking damage, but it adds to the challenge in a good way. there are real stakes here, which I think is core to the experience.

the first boss was probably my favorite part of the entire game, it’s a really cool moment! I eventually figured out a foolproof strategy though: just stay on the ground and time jump-attacks in-between fireballs. for some reason it never shot fireballs low to the ground, so it was completely safe.

I have a love-hate relationship with the flying skulls.

the blue balls gave me a lot of trouble, but I eventually figured it out and got through. I beat the final boss with zero power and only got hit once, it felt a bit too easy after the gauntlet that came before.

my only real complaint is about the “extra lives” — I think that system should be abolished, especially for a jam game like this. it makes a lot of people give up as they don’t want to start from the beginning again. I think it should just say “∞” and let the player retry the level as many times as they want without being sent back to the beginning of the game.

I found a few of bugs:

• getting a game over doesn’t properly reset the game state, so I had to close the game to start over with 5 extra lives.
• pressing “give up” doesn’t reset things either, so it’s possible to repeatedly farm the secret powerup at the beginning to start with max power. the game is still properly challenging though, as power is easily lost.
• being knocked into the ceiling from taking damage sometimes phased me out of the level and cost me a life.

I’ve played basically all the games in this jam now, and this is hands down my favorite!

Incredible art direction and music. My two critiques are 1) the difficulty feels like it ramps up too quickly, and 2) I'd have loved a little more visual contrast between the platforming areas and the background. This was less of an issue in the second level (I couldn't seem to get past the part with the sinking platforms on that level) and a minor one at best. Thanks for making and sharing your game!

Wow! This was absolutely fantastic. Felt like a legit NES game from back in the day. All around great on the art, the style, the sound, the controls, everything. I also had the bug where it skipped the scrolling intro text without any input from me that others have mentioned. My only critical feedback is that I really had to squint to see the theme. It was otherwise phenomenal.

I absolutely adore the art and music, and the gameplay is definitely on point. This 100% feels like a game straight out of the NES era. Although, I did encounter a bug. When I got a game over for the first time and tried to play again, each time I left the first area another game over would trigger. If you polished this up and added some more content, I would genuinely consider purchasing this game on steam. Fantastic job.

Love the presentation, and for a Castlevania inspired it certainl brought with it the difficulty. Felt like I took a number of cheap shots and some jumps felt overly precise, so I sadly didn't make it far, but I had fun with what I had.

Great game! For some reason the start screen didn't scroll and instead immediately went to the gameplay (without me pressing any buttons) but that's fine, I got to read it in the trailer. Awesome art and pallete swapping.