I wouldn't say including a game's instructions in-game is harsh criticism, especially when the controls aren't immediately obvious.
If I've learned anything from making games, it's that no one reads instructions.  I don't want to insult people who play games, but (and this is especially for jam games) most players are not going to read the instructions. You need to throw them into the player's face or make the game intuitive enough to figure out in seconds. I've taken to adding instructions to start screens and/or pause screens. It seems to help :p