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Not rating this as didn't find my mouse< and the game really wasn't playable on a track pad so it would be unfair for me to judge it... but I do intend to come back if I ever dig my mouse out,,, what little saw looked beautiful a fantastic look to it... sorry I didn't to play it properly but looking forward to based on what I saw.

I suck at bullet hells but it was pretty good, going to come back to it after the Jam and try and get past the second stage of the first boss! (please tell me there are only 2 stages), maybe I was being crap at picking up cash... but would have loved to have more money to buy power ups before getting to it..

Edit (well not strictly an edit), but self edit... I have just seen there is a heal button?!?...  I probably should have checked controls before hand!  Really cool entry

Sound is great I know you had issues getting it together for the end, but there is still quite a bit here... I gave up after climbing quite high and then getting stuck between screens, it wasn't always apparent to me (at least) what tiles would kill and what were safe to stand on. But a lot here to be proud of (not just the sound), and while a bit too unpolished atm still shows some real promise.

Great sprite work, and good feeling mechanics, though some walls you could kind of wall jump up from the start and wasn't sure if that was intentional? Game is small but with the extra overhead and restrictions of the platform still impressive.

Hope this is a jumping on point for more gba entries in future?

thanks, glad you enjoyed, 

as always with these jams I should spend more time getting the mechanics down but I get carried away with those wierd/surprising moments actual gameplay takes a back seat.

The Boss was supposed to have more attack. patterns, but as is it's just a coin flip between whether he will do "lazer eyes" (yes I know it doesn't look like lazer eyes) , or clock in/out. With only 2 states and no direct checking he can get caught doing one or the other way too many times in a row. Even so without the dash, I am surprised you managed to beat him!

Fantastic entry, I got stuck on the final boss (assuming the 2nd boss is the final) and playing late at night I had to stop, the game is great but could use a bit of difficulty adjusting,  but it was fun to come back to the logs after getting the double jump, what was so painful before made a cake walk with the abilities (which is really the whole point of the backtracking)

I think I missed out how to use the phase ability (probably why I didn't beat the final boss).

One of my favourite entries! 

GREAT JOB 

I found this difficult to play maybe because I was on a laptop and clicking the left mouse button  while jumping was way more awkward than it would be with a mouse., so I hope to come back and give it another go... Not sure if it needed to be a mouse click but maybe the idea would be for additional powerups in the future that would require more precise placement.

The graphics are nice, even if I wasn't the biggest fan of the CRT shader especially when trying to read the text. But all in all lots of promise

really nice entry. looks stunning and manages to take a mechanic not usually associated with Metroidvanias but adds enough ability gating and exploration to still be a valid entry... occasionally (for me at least) got close to being more frustrating compared to fun... (those damn knight) - But  a really great game, as I still after a big "ARGGGH those *flippin* Knights" went back to play some more

Achievement unlocked "I knew someone would do that"... interesting entry a little too slow (especially as the dash is not obvious), and quite dark though I do like the concept of the lights and areas you can't see at all... I ended up in a tunnel where I was taking pretty much constant damage and I wasn't quite sure why (maybe there was something I was missing, or just couldn't see)

I hope you keep going on this, as the world feels interesting to explore

such an interesting entry... really ambitious on the mechanics and it could be odd with the 2.5d to know exactly where the  spider was going to attempt to go next with the jumps... I seemed to manage to trap myself (in the picture  posted) I couldn't get up here and think I had messed up the machine above, to not get past the path to the right... I think if I was rating just on potential it might be my favourite entry, but feels like it needs a little bit more finessing  before it becomes what it can become... I hope you continue with this game because more work could raise this from very good to a truly great game. 

Please take my criticism about lack of polish in the spirit it is intended... because the fact you managed to get such a complex mechanic (mostly) working in a Jam is seriously impressive.

thanks, I hope a 00s  free game you enjoyed? Yes Ideally I would have put more reasons to put the dash in before the boss so it was more obvious, how to avoid the target

good luck, looking forward to playing the SMvM version 👍 

oh and I should have put more reasons to practice the dodge before end boss as it's basically impossible without, and I should have tweaked the difficulty ,(which is what the one person who play tested recommended). Time was the enemy!

yeah no map button which was just laziness.. glad you enjoyed (jankiness and all), did you get the good or the bad ending? (There's only slightly different sprites and text between the 2)

it looks great, and the game is fun, but some of the movements are really difficult to get the hang of like pressing up at the right time to travel up the water, and the camera often seems to lag too far behind the player, which just made that even harder and I found myself frequewillntly off screen or at the very edge, not really seeing what I needed to... but that is the negative on to the positive it has such a great vibe and with a little more polish could be fantastic... 

I really didn't get how to damage the boss, maybe I am just missing something

Nice job...

Also maybe consider putting up a image or something games with no image are often a red flag and this was way better than I was expecting!

so annoying.... and yet, I felt compelled to keep playing till the end even after what felt like 100 attempts to get up those darn u bend thingies ;) so it must be doing something right,

Nice (if very frustrating) Entry!

really cool mechanic... It took me a while for it to click but it works well, I'd love to see a more complete game based on it, as I think you have the start of something that will be lots of fun if you put a bigger game behind it, possibly more of a puzzle game than Metroidvania, though again maybe that is because of the smaller size.

Not a massive fan of the AI art... I mean it looks good, but I would far prefer to see rushed programmer art than AI generated artwork, maybe I am marking the sensory score a little harshly because of it (sorry) but having read the other comments please don't let that equate to the music your daughter did, because that is a really nice job!

All in all a really nice entry that could be the start of something great.

Interesting prototype love the concept... I managed to fall through the world some place (or at least everything went dark (even darker)... But I am intrigued and really would like to play a more fleshed out game in this style With this mechanic in the future!

I guess I was slightly put off by the whole game monetization and offers to play ads to skip this level, I mean it's fine to try and make money off a game, but a jam is really just for the fun of it, and people will play your entry to try and offer advice and sense of community so trying to monetize that good will feels a little off.

That said there are some promising signs... it looks good if dark, but it;s an aesthetic I quite dig, I am note sure if any of the sprite/ art work is yours or if you just did coding... but either way with so many external assets you have made something that feel cohesive. 

I'd suggest trying to up the speed a bit, as others have said it does feel sluggish... leave annoying  precise jumps till a little later or at least don't make them result in insta death. I am not one to talk as movement in my games is always pretty bad... but really focus on getting a character that feels fun to move/jump attack, and then you can focus on adding some metroidvania ability gating.

Sorry if the above was a little negative but hopefully constructive - but you are on the right track, and I would be interested to see future games you come up with

thanks glad you enjoyed it.... the sprite collisions are a bit janky and I should have really shrunk the collision sprites (it's all per pixel but they should have been smaller to give a little leeway)

Free Cheez I love it!

Was there a map? I think I bought one.. but couldn't seem to  bring it up.

really great entry

With the cogs? I think that is mostly poor  level design on my part I will patch the level. Thanks!

and yeah I know about the dash flying ;) it is because the coyote time kicks in after the dash, which allows you to jump again within a window after the dash ending. I decided to leave in as I quite enjoyed it :)

punished how? What happened?

really great game as others have said here (and on your game page) there seems to a bug dying between getting a power up and saving, it's easy to get round (just reset and load), but it confused me initially.

I love the powers the fairy and the map design... some of the ways you have implemented the powers (especially freeze) to open up the map is great.

Fabulous game!

thanks would be cool to see the playthrough, as it's easy to become blind to things after playing through the game so often.

The low level audio engine I use really struggles on the web build, I probably need to gut it completely.

Glad you enjoyed the Jankiness, 

There are IFrames - obviously not enough as it is a common complaint - but they are there... I really need to fix the stun lock, basically I plan(ned)  to put 'Amy' back into the bunny hop backwards state after she hits you.. though it requires some engine rewrites so the "monster" dealing damage can get notified and know to change state, and I didn't prioritise it high enough to get in this release (too busy with wierd inconsequental details that no one beyond myself would ever notice ;))

This is a lovely game... stylistically simple... and simple in "concept" but the level design is fantastic and the implementation as absolutely top notch... possibly a little one note to be any longer... but as it was it was the perfect length and felt very satisfying to get to the end"

Really clever and well done entry!

thanks.... glad you enjoyed the chaaracter art and the absurdist humour. There really wasn't time to  work on the backgrounds and tiles this time round hence the jarring style , beyond a couple of props for Bara-cuda's throne room.

Movement mechanics definitely need work too, but hopefully I should be able to get something a lot better together for the next version!

interesting game.... and a lot to like about it... as others have said the climbing gloves felt a bit annoying as brushing against anything put you into a really slow slide down which meant where you were trying to jump to a specific spot or get away from those pesky birds, it felt a little "sticky"

Apart from that an interesting game with good mechanics, that could be tweaked a little but form the basis of a nice little metroidvania :)

Must admit I struggled with the grapple mechanic... I found using the arrow keys  seemed to not work (at least for me as they seemed to fire off the grapple no matter what), I suspect it's more of a me problem then the game's, but it was still something I was struggling with.

Beyond that I was blown away by this entry, both with the game play and gorgeous graphics!

Stunning

thanks.... I really shouldn't have needed the hint ;) 

Enjoyed the rest of the game, would have loved to see a bit more game after with the 3rd character, but that's just being greedy as there is already a lot in there.

Great job both of you!

I must admit I got a bit confused (and still am) about how to fight the first boss, the parry to do it damage initially worked.... but once it started flying across the screen I didn't work out how to defeat it... I kept parrying as it flew past but it didn't seem to take any damage...

So I am only commenting up to that point.. But I liked the graphics the sound was minimal but still good, story was nice.

Playing on a gamepad, some of the controls were a bit odd (switching between characters for instance), but worked well on keyboard..

Looking forward to coming back (and hopefully working out how to kill that silly Lizard)

Thanks glad you enjoyed.

As much as I tell myself I am going to concentrate on nailing the movement mechanics, there's always a completely inconsequential element: like implementing an airlock system, (though I am planning to add some more puzzle elements to that)  that grabs my attention.

Aiming to keep this going for SMVM so hopefully can iron out some the jankiness!

thanks will check out space jump... it worked last time I checked, but didn't test the final build, so a bug might have slipped through, was this web or exe build?

The bosses have pretty well defined states, once you learn (or have programmed them), but they are probably not sign posted enough to feel fair for first time encountering them. Will try and improve on that for later (SMVM) versions

Nice little game... the graphics were really nice and the mechanics were all sound.... it felt a bit more like a maze then a game due to the lack of any peril..  but I hope you keep going with this and maybe add an enemy or two, as you have the basis of a great game here!

WOW!

This would be an amazing achievement for a team effort. let alone a single developer turning out such a complete and well polished entry! love the vector art and the gameplay.. 

Not finished yet, But definitely coming back to it.. 

GREAT ENTRY!

A lot to like about this, 

The graphics are lovely the game is short.. but pretty sweet, as others have said the intro is a little overly long, but I liked all the dialog and looked to find more characters to press 'C'  on to see what they said to me

I think being able to use the bow midair might be a good addition. And the Boss could do with having an additional state or 2 to make the fight a little more interesting..

But overall a great start, really interested to see where it goes (are you planning on continuing with it for SMVM?)

A lot to lie about this, 

The graphics are lovely the game is short.. but pretty sweet, as others have said the intro is a little overly long, but I liked all the dialog and looked to find more characters to press 'C'  on to see what they said to me

I think being able to use the bow midair might be a good addition. And the Boss could do with having an additional state or 2 to make the fight a little more interesting..

But overall a great start, really interested to see where it goes (are you planning on continuing with it for SMVM?)