This is the stuff gamejams are made of
1) simple and concise gameplay loop, yet has lots of enemy variety and weapon variety and player agency in both weapon and enemy selection
2) simple pixel graphics that convey their meaning well, all character and bullet sprites pop against the background, everything is readable. Animations were subtle and fun, the carrot cutely opens his mouth to fire.
3) upgrades are varied, weapon upgrades stack allowing you to customize the right gun for what you want
4) Player gets control of enemy placement, there is a choice to be made between how many enemies you want to face and what type. More enemies provide more challenge, but also a larger reward, however if you are sloppy more enemies might mean you just end up spending that reward on heals to make up for your mistakes, so there is a conscious choice to be made here. The value here is in the gameplay. However I noticed there is no scoring system for the game, so it is purely a metric of whether you can beat it or not, the player might not necessarily be incentivized to take on a bigger challenge for a bigger score. This is an interesting trade off, and I can't decide if it would be better to implement a scoring system because it would increase replayability but takes away the idea you that the player crafts the stages toward the skill level they would like to face. Score seekers would play full corn only to maximize points I assume
5) I thought I could cheese the game pretty easily by just circle strafing the map, but the tomatoes have great AI and get stuck on the square plots, causing them to swarm you with their high speed if the player doesn't move precisely. Carrots are easier to manage because they are slow and their attack is readable and dodgeable, a full carrot map is easier than a tomato map because youll have good upgrades by this point too. Corn completely shuts down a players circle strafe strat which is great design. Their exploding nature and speed makes planting them too close to you detrimental and if the player goes full glass cannon they'll be in a lot of trouble. I found myself needing to grow carrots close by and corn far away to get through the levels (I always wanted to plant a full map)
6)The twist at the end is great, if you specced your gun to be full spread you will be surprised when a single enemy boss hits you. Your gun which was good against swarms is now trash. I found it difficult to aim my huge spread gun despite the amount of bullets and died fairly quickly. I played again with a more modest high damage lower multi shot gun, which made the first 9 levels a little tougher but the boss easier, this is a great way to balance the game to make sure the player is mindful of their upgrades and doesn't just windmill slam every gun upgrade presented to them
7. The boss even has an additional mode where it gets a shield very cool
8. Changes I'd like to see: scoring added, maybe? A Sicko mode where you can plant all Pumpkins. The Pumpkin boss should start spawning other vegetables on the plots to attack you when it reaches lower health. Music was good but could stand to be a little more hype during the shooting phase.
All in all, great game, polished, fun and replayable