This little game might just be my personal favorite. The combat being bump-based, including pogos and pin-balling yourself amidst a crowd is very satisfying and easy to get into for how simple it is. The dash and stomp naturally extend this core mechanic. It feels a bit like grazing for points in a bullet hell. It did get a bit messy in the last mandatory combat room, with how little space there is and how you can chain-bounce between getting hurt, and hitting the enemies.
In terms of presentation, I like the character portrait and UI on the left, letting the game itself have a retro aspect ratio while still utilizing wide screens. The portrait is cute but could've used some actual utilization to dignify its inclusion. Love that you went not just with a tight 8-color palette, but that it's split between greens and yellows. They're easy on the eyes while still providing contrast for only the essentials. Nice to have different music for the biomes, also! A proper game completion screen to mirror the title screen would've been nice to tie a bow around the whole thing.
Structure-wise, it's fun how the game kind of starts you in the middle, and then sends you up and down for key abilities. This culminating in a challenge up top and a treasure down below felt like a nice alternative take to coming full circle.