Hey, I think one of us isn't fully understanding the other. I wasn't saying you should design the section to FORCE the player to use ice; I was saying that an obvious series of floating enemies that can't be jumped on would be a better way of subtly conveying your intentions, as opposed to a single enemy that CAN be jumped on and a platform that just barely can't be reached from bouncing on said enemy. In the second chandelier level, the second time the game requires ice for non-Matts without traversal powerups to reach a painting, you use one of those electrified black sphere enemies, and that's a much better clue than the ghost cat since, as I said, they can't be jumped on safely without freezing them, but the platform visibly can't be reached otherwise. All I'm asking is for a similar clue to be implemented in Hellfire Mountain.
Anyway, I've beaten the game and gotten all the keys, and to reiterate: I think the game is good overall; decent graphics, good humor, fun gameplay, solid level design, and the hints for missed keys are also just as helpful as I was hoping they'd be, even if said hints are a bit out of the way. I just have a few final points of feedback:
1) There's no cat claw powerup in Unstable Footing Underside, so the only way to get the key is to bring the power in from elsewhere. Once again, I feel the need to point out that all other worlds' keys can be gotten using the powers within each of their respective levels (and that this would be a non-issue if Inventory items could be used within levels--even if only at checkpoints). Also, I think you should add one more coin to the bottom of that coin trail that leads to the Underside's key.
2) I know now that the long whip was taken by the Rich Reaper, so I'm not sure what a good whip replacement would be for the Snow Queen or Dan Maku. However, I do think some of their patterns could use some clearer tells: when Mr. 44 is about to stomp, have it move upward for a split second, and likewise, right before the Rich Reaper dashes to the other side of the arena, have him move backwards for a split second. Also, instead of the Rich Reaper's melee attack appearing all at once, have each purple arc appear one after the other.
3) When a zombie is coming out of the ground, there should be some indication of this happening on the solid tile the zombie is coming out of, because the zombie itself appears behind the player and can result in a cheap hit in the dark levels.
4) The notes in the final world are well written, but I'd appreciate if they appeared in (or at least quickly moved to) a less-obtrusive part of the screen, such as the top or bottom--or better yet, have them appear as standard text boxes that pause the game until the player pushes a button.
5) You did a great job at introducing the shadow ghosts by having the player fall into that gap and having the shadow ghost float by above right afterward. Unfortunately, the first static level (with the gibberish name) does not do a good job of introducing the shadow hands because the ledge looks safe to fall off...right until you do so and crash face-first into the enemy you didn't see. My recommendation is to have the player fall down a one-tile-wide vertical shaft (so there's no room to move left or right), then have it drop the player into a left/right split path except the shadow claws are right there beside the player.
6) A couple more typos: in the ending, Matt says "a ethereal" instead of an ethereal, and one of Jason's lines mentions "asbesthos" (there's not supposed to be an h in asbestos).
7) Personally, I was disappointed that the keys only unlocked more playable characters instead of postgame levels, but I guess different players value different things.
8) The final boss's large downward laser should have a bit more warning since it covers almost the whole arena. Maybe, instead of just having her float there, have the laser instantly show up but expand slowly for the same amount of time she spends waiting in the game's current build. EDIT: For another clue, you could have the laser's slow expansion rate also slowly speed up.
9) Speaking of the final boss, I found the spinning sword weapon to be rather unreliable at destroying the boss's bullets, and I also found that the bomb weapon made it much more clear when the boss suddenly becomes invulnerable while still pretending to react to damage. Would you consider tweaking the boss's pattern so that the bullet spiral has more frequent but smaller gaps that can be slipped through without destroying any bullets, then swap the given weapon for the bomb and move the spinning sword to the world 6 or 7 boss?
10) Is there an alternate ending? If so, are there any in-game hints on how to get said alternate ending? I already got all the paintings and notes.
EDIT: Couple more awkward phrases in the bestiary: Court Mage has "they did the correct choice" when the more natural way to phrase that is "they made the correct choice," and Water Balloon Girl has "water balloons is" instead of are. Oh, and Soul of Art says "it once were" instead of either "it once was" or, depending on what you were going for, "they once were."
