Very nice. I just feel that the control of the character wasn't fluid enough.

Starting off the first thing I notice is how floaty and slow the character feels but it quickly becomes apparent that this actually works. Given you're required to shoot things when mid air the floaty control compliments the gameplay.

The area style gameplay is a neat idea and fairly well executed, I though it was going to be the entire game at first. The exploding....switches caught me off guard and I was quite confused as to what happened at first, perhaps make it more evident they damage you, but I took a guess as to what happened and once I got used to them they were a good way of ramping up challenge.

I think the enemy system in this area part could do with some fleshing out. I get that they explode to stop the arena from filling up but it feels so arbitrary, like why do they explode there? Contextually it makes no sense which can make it confusing. Perhaps if they fell onto spikes or down a bit this would make it clearer. Having them disappear down a pit would also avoid the question of weather they drop hp on "natural" death. As is, having them not drop hp on natural/timeout death is another thing that makes sense design wise but not contextually, ergo being slightly un-intuitive, though that is a nitpick.

Building off of this, having enemies simply drop hp might be too easy since you can just farm them w/o too much trouble, then again this might be what you were going for. Perhaps I'm wrong, but do they always move towards the centre when dropping from the ceiling? If so, having them go towards the player would at least stop them from farming enemies from the edge of the platform.

The boss looked good but beginning the fight one 1 hp the first time I got instantly shot w/o time to dodge and had to do the whole thing again which felt a little unfair. When I did beat it I did so by standing in the corner fairly safely which I guess cancels out the aforementioned screwery.

Overall though I though it was an interesting game, some issues and a bit basic but everything controlled well and it was generally fun to play.

AND THEN,

it switches to a fairly standard platformer out of no where. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't bad at all but it was a bit surprising. Perhaps I'm biased because one of my own games is slightly similar (Skyward Descent) but it still feels a little strange.

The platformer part was fun as well. However, I never beat the level. At first I though it was good, fair challenge, ect, and then reached the point that simultaneously introduces falling platforms, vertical scrolling and turret enemies all whilst threatening you with spikes and flies. I know the phrase is "difficulty curve" but if you're introducing multiple new mechanics you might want to scale it down for a bit. Don't get me wrong, this part was interesting but very overwhelming. The turrets fire very quickly after stopping which made it difficult, plus a sound effect to indicate them getting ready to fire would be nice. Combined with the fact that they scroll onto screen, move, then scroll off and stop moving made them a real pain to deal with.

None of this would really be a problem if it wasn't for one major issue, how punishing the game is. There's reason to have a degree of punishment, but having to do the whole first part of the level which is quite samey because I messed up at the difficulty brick wall was incredibly tedious and frustrated, which leads into that cycle where I fail because I'm frustrated and therefor...you get the idea. This is made worse by how slow the character is. I mentioned earlier this is a good thing, and it was used well, but when I'm trying to rush through a level it means I get careless. I did beat the vertical segment a few times (forgot to mention that the vertical scrolling really screwed with me as well because I couldn't see whats coming) but would soon die after. I found the most reliable way to beat it was to just hope I get the thing which powers up my gun, and when RNG is what determines my success something has gone wrong.

Overall, I did like what I played of this game. Controls well, looks nice and for the most part well executed. But when a game like this is oh so punishing, it highlights the minor nitpicks like how you cant duck mid-shooting and puts them in the forefront. Overall, mostly good, just a shame about some bits getting in the way.