Thanks for the excellent feedback.

Using the spike balls as your own projectiles actually sounds really fun, I'll probably change them to look less spikey and allow the player to also push them as an attack. Objects which damage the player on touch should probably just be floor spikes or something.

You're right that the super charge should probably just have actual damage immunity. Stunning you momentarily once you hit a wall should be enough of a downside if you're locked in moving into a single direction already.

I'm limiting the gameplay to using only one button, so one of the challenges  has been about how the charging should function. Earlier iterations have included pressing the button multiple times quickly in succession, and having the player enter a "brake" state if you press the button again when doing the normal attack, which could then transition into a super charge.

Holding the button is probably what the input will stay as. You're right that there should be immediate feedback when you start holding it, maybe a charge meter or something?

A pause function basically exists, but it's currently only being used by the hit stun effects. I disabled the pause button for now because it otherwise breaks the hit stun and crashes the game. I'll look into implementing player controlled pausing and options before I release another demo.

Point taken about the tiles, I'm not 100% happy with them either. I spent way too much time making the brick walls look better (which is why I will be palette swapping them at least two times in other levels lol) and didn't feel like doing the same with a completely new set of tiles yet.

The sprite scaling bug happens when you take damage at just the right moment while being squeezed by slamming into a wall. I made one earlier attempt at fixing it, but also encountered it right before release. Thanks for reporting it.

Thanks. I'm still figuring out how exactly to handle health. About a week ago the player had 8 hit points (re-presented by hearts) and enemies had a small chance to drop a +1 health item if you were missing any.  Currently enemies always drop those white orbs which either restore health (if you are missing any) or give you additional score if you are full.

I'm still pondering if I should just make the player invincible (like in Wario land 2-3) and have the player drop some score items when they take damage, so actual dying would never be an issue but you'd have to avoid hits to get a higher score. Getting all S ranks will be a requirement to get the game's true ending.

Thanks a lot! The entrances for the levels will eventually function differently, with a pop-up window that shows what you've collected/missing from that level and you have to press the button in front of it to enter. I implemented it here in the dirtiest and fastest way possible by just using a collision event with the player object.

Thanks. I'll try to implement options such as alternate controls for the next demo. One of the core design principles that I'm leaning into is to have unique objects in every level and to tutorialise how they function within the gameplay. I'm personally fed up with text box based explanations and long-winded tutorials.

I thought it would be funny to have a fat Wario expy wearing those leather straps typically worn by muscly and fit men. I came up with the theme while drunk.

Thanks for playing!