The music set the tone immediately, very vibe-y! The aesthetics are great, menu art is superb and Barnie is beautiful.
The variety of attacks was nice, and it was fun to experiment with them to see what they did. I really liked Barnie gaining additional mechanics each time you pushed him into the next section of his health bar, and the teeth being the markers for those was a great UI choice.
Totally agree with Lemmy on the melee units feeling very punishing - I ended up retreating and relying on my special when playing the rogue - and visible cooldowns would have been useful. I beat Barnie's with each character except the Gladiator and hadn't unlocked any further fights, so hung up my tournament cloak proud of my progress.
All in all, a solid foundation and lovely entry, well done to the whole team!