This game was pretty fun! Felt very different from its inspirations, but the differences were definitely not detriments. I like the music, and the sound design is very solid. All in all, pretty fun.
I would have liked to see the enemies have different appearances that would have hinted at whether they were walkers, shooters, or twin-shooters. The guesswork involved was a little frustrating at times. However, it was very well received that even if mistakes were made along the way, the game would only put you back to the beginning of the room.
The velocity mechanic was interesting, though I feel it really tends to slow down the pace of the game due to forcing the player to land frequently and take careful steps. One thing I really like about Downwell is how when you’re spiraling down the chute, you gotta maneuver yourself carefully and make every bullet count, not necessarily slowing yourself down but being careful to keep your steps secure, whether for your combo’s sake or to avoid obstacles. Here I just felt like it was a slow-paced platformer, and felt encouraged to linger and farm enemies rather than blitzing through carefully. With the ability to backtrack as well, I quickly became too powerful.
I like the idea behind the world-switching mechanic a lot! I thought it may have been somewhat underutilized, though. Both worlds seemed more or less equivalent in content, and although it seemed like it may have been useful to switch between worlds to dodge bullets, the bullets both came somewhat too quickly to react fast enough consistently enough, and enemies tended to fire almost immediately upon world-switching for me to the point that trying to world-switch to evade often just ended up putting me in even more danger than I was in before. I think with some polish, though, a mechanic like this could really shine in a game like this.
All in all, it was a good time. Good job to the team!