I don't know if this is intentionally super fast or it's just missing a tick rate or something, but it feels like you're totally out of control all the time. 

Also not sure how throwing the shield isn't a weapon.

Wow, the little bear is just so adorable! I agree with the other reviewers that throwing the shield feels a bit too similar to actually using a weapon, and it feels a little bit hectic. Also there's some parts where I didn't realize that I would fall into a pit or run into a dead-end, simple graphical representations like spikes or walls could help making those parts a bit clearer.

Love the concept of a passive-mode only Castlevania game! A bit slower paced, focus on blocks, parries, dodge rolls, smoke bombs etc.. Could really be somethin'!

Too fast paced with too little control

good! a few things. cute graphics, of course. the music is also good. the variety in characters to show the options of the shielf is good.

the bear's jump is reeeeal sensitive/just goes really high. i would calm it down. less jump.

Also, a way to change controls would be nice. i think i would've done a little better if i didn't ahve to use the native controls. 

the mechanic for the gmtk game jam was good. i like that you just use a shield.  of course you can use the shield as a weapon by throwing, but it's a cute idea nonetheless. making those minor changes above, i think you've got a great game!

In general, I like the concept, but I think the execution is a little lacking. Removing power-ups and replacing them with keys is basically doing the opposite of what Metroidvanias do for games. Also, as has been mentioned before, the shield basically feels like a weapon.

On the other hand, the controls feel decent and the graphics and sound are great. The game feels competently made. I did run into a handful of glitches (dying and restarting causes the music to play over itself a second time; fell off a platform in the chandelier room and it respawned me on top of some brick work where I was effectively stuck).

Solid effort, but a good example that just removing a thing for the sake of simplicity does not always improve an experience.

It's a perfectly adequate game. The movement felt a bit clunky, though and the health regen seemed unnecessary. Also, I would consider the thrown shield to be a weapon, especially since in the game it looks and feels more like a throwing spear.

Good art, needs some time spent on feel but it's cool! I like the idea if you run with it, add tons of ways to defend and it can be just as deep a game as any action game

The game is decent on its own. The art style is solid, the framework is solid, and it overall works as a flash game.
But the player character feels way too fast, the door visuals are unclear, the 'no power-ups' felt irrelevant due to health regen, and it didn't follow the own rules it set (no weapons). So I can't really give this one a pass.

I belive the player should be able to visually distinguish between doors that need keys and doors that don't.

I really enjoyed this game but did not survive long enough to enjoy more of it. archers are boss monsters filling rooms with unblock-able arrows from all directions!

Visually, audibly of a high standard and controls were good (but a bit twitchy). The only "complaint" I have is that if you replace the shield with a weapon graphic, it's just a standard platformer again. The only difference from this to another platformer is the attack animation is a shield and not a weapon.

To use the mechanic of "you dont have a weapon" I think you could (in future, as clearly you are time limited for this jam) have mechanics in the world which you interact with in each level to beat the enemies. For example dropping things on people. A bit like HITMAN but without the weapons/guns/close combat. I feel like there's a solid idea there, just maybe needs a bit more time to develop and some creativity around "not having a weapon".

The art is really good, like how angry the bear gets when he throws his shield

Super fast movement makes this platformer feel very twitchy. Not a ton of distinction between the foreground and background objects -- e.g. you can jump off the pillars that are colored the same as the background. Music and art were interesting, but just felt too twitchy to really be enjoyable.

Great art. Less so gameplay. Moves way too fast, and the enemies often shoot you while you can't do anything about it (you threw your shield at another enemy). Slow it down it general, it'll make it feel like the player has more control.

You move to fast so the game is hard to control. The removal of upgrades isn't used in an interesting way so it just feels like a bare bones platformer. However the combat using a shield is interesting.

The presentation is great,the platform and enemy positions are quite good,the mechanics are good too.The controls and the feel is off though.There are some vertical scrolling and respawn after pit falls problems too.

FOREWORDS:

Game completion: I played for around 30 minutes, collected around 5 keys, explored ~10 rooms (out of 21) and did not finish the game. Please understand: I wanted to review as many games as possible and didn't want to focus on just a single one too much.

The goal of this game jam (from my point of view; this is key in order to understand the way I reviewed this game): "you, developers, have to remove a fundamental mechanic of a genre and have to find a new, creative mechanic to make up for that". The important part of this challenge is actually the second one.

REVIEW:

[1/2] As a Metroidvania per se, I didn't like it.

• Jumping feels off (you jump too high too fast), camera is too close to the player;

• enemies attack too fast and are often placed too close to the room doors;
• the healing mechanic turns the game into a waiting game.
• Rooms look all the same, no secret paths (because of no breakable stage elements). Map is too simple with very little branching paths. Backtracking is almost absent.

[2/2] Then there's the new original idea, which the developers had to come up with in order to maintain the game genre intact while removing a basic mechanic. They removed power-ups and character progression and introduced... keys. But this is very problematic:

• No character progression means - if present at all - no meaningful backtracking, because you don't feel empowered when you revisit previous rooms, which detracts a lot from the Metroidvania experience (one could argue that you as a player become better at the game, but that's not the case either because the controls and battle mechanics are just not deep enough).
• The fact you only have one way to access new rooms, that is via doors opened by keys, limits strongly the map design. No secret paths, no puzzles, no exploration. Just go in all rooms, collect all keys, defeat the final boss. It's a 2D Platformer.

TO WRAP IT UP:

The developers removed a fundamental game mechanic (power-ups), which detracts a lot from the overall experience, and the idea they came up with (keys) is uninspired and doesn't make up for that. The "traditional rest" wasn't good, either. 

Needless to say, I didn't like this game. 2/5.

Look at that bear go! Very very fast controls but I got the hang of them in the end. The art style is great and the combat works once you realise what effects which enemy. I love how open the level design is, as a metroidvania it functions very well!

Nice art style and music with gameplay that is a little hard to get the hang of!