i beat world 1 and world 2, got pretty far in world 3 (but idk if that’s true lol, but didn’t beat it).
ENJOY MY SCATTERBRAINED REVIEW
this game is really good! its NES feel is amazing, its graphics are good, its audio is AMAZING. now to preface this i have to say i didn’t really enjoy this game , though other than my obvious skill issue, i know this game was just not made for me and i can tell it was made by a group of people really passionate about hard games, so i’m rating this game really highly.
4/5 STARS!!! :3
the first world on this is perfect. it’s a bit too easy, but i liked it.
the second world, i started to feel frustration, but that final attempt with me just waltzing through all the obstacles was fun, though a bit anticlimactic how it ended so suddenly.
the third world was... i didn’t beat this one. i spent a lot of time on it but i didn’t actually know how far i was into the world, and i dreaded the 4th world that i (assume) was coming so i quit.
i will beat this one later once i get some rest. i’ll finalize my ratings also after that. i’m also gonna share some of my grievances on the third world that only happen in the third world later in this comment.
my nitpicks!
first of all, the "slide off the walls"—maybe map it to a button (A and B are unused... though i did see ??? in the description, maybe make it so it maps it to one button before you get those?)
anyways, or you could make it tamer. i had too many deaths just sliding into an enemy when i was trying to hide behind a wall.
second, i think that the uhh hitbox may be a bit weird? like it seems a bit higher in the head than the legs, and i have so many deaths just by bonking myself into an enemy i thought i was safe from. this also teams up with the slide problem i talked about earlier.
so the first two worlds i played, this game did feel like a puzzle game instead of a high-stakes dodging game. i enter a room, see what places are safe, run, die (or in the case of the first world just... complete the level), and then i usually am able to optimize my path without stopping in subsequent runs.
but one of my problems with this is that it doesn’t really build up "HYPE." imo it should tell you how far you are into the dungeon, so i get the feeling of "OMG I HAVE ONE LIFE AND AM 2 ROOMS AWAY!!" instead of... "so this run is dead isn’t it."
this made me feel i was not actually making meaningful progress in the second world, and even when i "found" the optimal path for almost all the "stages" of the world, i just ended up getting bored going through it all again while trying to get back to the place i was.
once i beat it, i let out an "oh?" because i didn’t know that room was the end. i wasn’t hyped for me reaching that room.
i think just adding a (CURRENT ROOM)/(MAX ROOM) text on the screen would do wonders.
now for the difficulty—of course i admit i sucked—but the "difficulty" i do enjoy is one that has me thinking of new strats or forces me to get better with my current tools, making the process faster and easier over time.
this game does that to a certain extent, but it’s just walking. you can’t really optimize walking beyond a certain point, and even after that, one clumsy "slide" or just zoning out a bit will kill you.
while this isn’t an NES game, ultrakill on its higher difficulties—which i love so much i’m gonna mention it randomly every 2 seconds—is very hard, but there’s so many guns, so many tricks, so much stuff at your disposal, that repeating the same level doesn’t feel stale, it feels new.
like i know you said you were going for the design of the old NES era, but as a filthy zoomer, the only ones i played a lot (in that brief period where i discovered those mobile emulators that had a bunch of built-in ROMs and i thought "WOW THESE ARE SO MUCH GAMES") are mario 1-3, all the megamans, and kirby.
now mario and kirby aren’t that hard (but that’s beside the point). for example, the first megaman game, which was kinda hard the first time you play it, you can keep optimizing your strats because it’s decently complex with its weapons, and you get meaningful progress by getting a new thing to play with and experiment every stage.
imo this game is too simple for its difficulty currently. simple is good, but it makes it become boring the more you play it, which is apparent when you are trying to beat a game which is hard.
of course, this is all my opinion, as i stated at the start.
NOW WORLD 3.
y’know how i said this game is a puzzle? well this turns almost all the enemies unpredictable, and that would be fine if it wasn’t in this game.
it’s like it wants to become a bullet hell (but with wayyy less bullets), but it can’t go all the way, so it’s stuck in this limbo which i don’t think the hitbox or movement of the player is good for the world’s randomness.
i really don’t like this world, but i’m sure i’ll warm up to it like i did world 2 once i beat it.
anyways
IN SUMMARY:
the "slide off the walls" is kinda too much, maybe bind them to a separate key.
collisions may be a bit wonky (VERY MINOR NITPICK).
add a progress counter wherever on the UI that tells you how many rooms are left.
polish world 3 a bit more (this is very opinion based).
i think i saw that i got a few lives—maybe make a counter on how many thingies you have to do or collect to get an extra life, i really didn’t know how i got those.
great game! rated this highly. i dunno why you said you didn’t care how difficulty would affect its score. imo it wouldn’t affect it that much in this game :3 it’s cool!