The visuals of scanning things is so cool! It was a joy to play.
I like how the theme is "peaceful" where you don't fight any enemies, but instead explore the map and document the wildlife.
The snail shortcuts are a great idea and I hope you continue with that. Sometimes with games, the map is so expansive that it's hard to remember which places I have visited. Seeing the snails helps me remember that I unlocked that part. A very simple minimap showing which screen the player is in could be nice, but wasn't necessary.
If possible, I would make the secret tunnels more apparent when scanning, as sometimes it's hard to see clearly when all the blocks are flashing.
The movement is a bit "slippery" too, which makes some jumps difficult. Having the character stop as soon as the move button is released would help this. Right now, the character seems to slide, or carry their momentum.
Interesting mechanic where scanning an animal for enough time will freeze it in place. Could see this integrated into the platforming but it would be hard to time in it's current state.
When scanning and pressing the jump button, I see my character "phasing" upwards, like it's showing my future path if I again press the jump button. I wasn't sure if this was a special mechanic or not, which was a little confusing, but it seems like it's just for visual sake.
Too bad I couldn't leave the end screen since I wanted to explore more. It seems like this was intended so I'm looking forward to more!
Very excited to see where you take this game.