hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I was not expecting to love this game so much. Booted it up and initially thought "Ah, another rudimentary platformer with rudimentary visuals. How exciting." But then I finished the spider cutscene, and the room lit up and the music started groovin and the measuring cups started spinnin and AHHH I love it.
The absurdity of the premise does a lot to make the game fun. Running around grabbing 10 nondescript gems to beat the level wouldn't have been as interesting. But running around as a seal grabbing ingredients for a cake to satiate the spider king? Much more fun. There's also a lot mechanically to keep things engaging. Movement feels really nice, the drill stomp is satisfying, and the timer adds a sense of urgency. The different measuring cups make this especially fun. Rather than just finding the 10 thingamacguffins, you need to check the recipe, grab the right cup, go to the ingredient, bring it back to the bowl, and spin to wi—I mean spin to mix it in. Requires a lot more active thought than what would otherwise be a rather standard collectathon. I also like the unique mechanics with eggs; helped to add some variety to the typical "measuring cup → ingredient → bowl" loop.
Also, the music is awesome, especially during the baking part. The sound effects present are also great, but I wish the player had them as well. As for visuals, I'm mixed. The seal and spider king are adorable, and the scrappy visuals definitely play to the game's theming. However, I think the game still would benefit a lot from some level of visual cohesion. Keep the 3D measuring cups and ingredient images, sure, but everything else would've done well to adopt a style similar to the spider king.
Again, awesome game; enjoyed it way more than expected!