I'm still figuring out the best course of action for top-down shooters on the Game Boy 🤔. One idea I've had but not tested yet would be where one fire button enables strafing while shooting in the direction the character is facing (as it is here), while the other button strafes in the opposite direction, letting the player retreat while firing at the thing they're retreating from.
The two reasons that hasn't been implemented here are:
- I haven't figured out how I'd get the retreating shot to work yet 🤔🤔;
- I really wanted to work with the idea of a primary and secondary shot type...
(Although in practice, I wonder if anybody still uses the primary fire after picking up any of the special weapons, because I know I certainly don't... 🤔😌)
I'm thinking if the enemies weren't quite as relentless as they turned out in this build, that would also mitigate some of the clunkiness to how the strafing handles, and would in turn help with what you're saying about respawning right in the thick of it.
Thanks for the feedback! 👍