Thank you, ninjacatz!! I am a fan of retro-games especially castlevania, so I try to keep it as retro as possible :D I'm really glad you like my art, animating can be so tedious but the results are worth it. The worms were challenging to program, so I'm really glad you like them.
Sound will be in the post-jam version I am currently working on, which should be ready soon! Unfortunately sound got cut during crunch time. This project was ambitious and I need to get better at planning out game jams. It was my first time doing an official game jam so I am learning a lot!!
The bats can be avoided, and there's a few options. You can play it safe and shred through all the bats with the whip, or if you are feeling brave you can shred through the bats for a few seconds and then jump and hover to get some damage in on the boss safely. The latter is the intended optimal strategy, but I understand it is a little hard to figure out. I'm planning to shorten the wave so you can safely fly over it from the start, and save the current longer wave version for a harder difficulty to be added in the future.
I'm really glad you had a good time playing the game!! Thank you so much for playing to the end and sharing your thoughts, I really appreciate it!