Sorry, I hadn't thought about this. If I make a future version, I'll be sure to add an option to not have explosions. Thanks for the feedback! Obviously, the issue with not having the "car-like control scheme", as you call it, is that using world-based movement (eg., W goes up, A goes left, etc.) would be that there is no direction the player is "facing", which is required for shooting/screaming at the snakes (sending projectiles).
I considered early on using a mouse movement, but pointing towards the mouse makes it too easy to aim. Anyways, I'll think about it. Again, thank you for pointing out the distress that the flashes may cause, I will definitely tone them down or add an option to in a future version.