game's fair, though it takes a bit to get used to the mechanics:
the "slap" attack, which is this game's quirk (reflects orange projectiles and deal damage on contact), and your bombs being tied to each stage instead of your life (you don't get 3 bombs per life, but each boss stage starts you with 3 bombs).
this is relevant for 1-hit mode, where you're free to use all 3 bombs whenever since they'll be "refilled" on the next stage; but it also means any additional unused bomb won't carry over.
there are some things that did somewhat take away from the experience that i'd like to see addressed:
- X and C should be reversed. i'd like my panic button next to my regular shoot button, and i don't see a reason why the button to skip dialogue should be between them.
- the boss hp bar doesn't actually tell you how much health the bosses have: sometimes i'd deplete it completely, but the boss would still not die until it got hit some more.
i can't tell what causes this, as it's not related to "keeping your combo going", nor the time left. the amount of time it gets extended also differs between each boss, so i can only assume it's related to each of them having more (different amounts of) health that isn't properly shown.
EDIT: it seems the last hit HAS to be a reflected bullet. if you're dealing damage with your slap as the boss is being hit by a reflected bullet, it may also cancel the death animation. basically you need to make sure you aren't directly hitting the boss yourself for it to go down, which is a weird gameplay choice regardless.
- the color of the bullets you can and can't reflect: while it's noticeably different for most attack patterns, some of them where both types are mixed in (2nd boss specifically) make it really difficult to tell them apart. it's hard to tell what's to dodge and what you can mash through.
- invincibility on death (if it exists) needs to be slightly extended, for the purpose of repositioning. while the area around you does get cleared of bullets when you respawn, some patterns require you to be in specific positions to dodge the remaining pattern (relevant patterns are the last one for the third boss, and the second time-out spell for the final boss that forces you to strafe from opposite sides of the screen); however moving out of that circle gets you killed again almost immediately.
- the screen white-out at the end of the last pattern. you can still die while the screen's fading, meaning you need to keep dodging bullets you may not be able to see properly.
this is a minor thing, since it doesn't last long and you can bomb through that last part, but it's still somewhat unfair to the player because it assumes they either have that extra bomb for it, or maybe they think they're safe when they're not. might be annoying for anyone trying for higher dififculties.
there's the usual API timeout issue with medals, but otherwise they all seem to work.
just a heads up for whoever plans to play this later down the line
EDIT: my scuffed no-hit run after like a hundred of retries
(i panicked a lot on the last boss and kept getting myself in the worst position every time, so i ended up having to use every single bomb i had. could have been much cleaner but i really didn't want to die)
https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/9ba487a5082a90cf72dac86f510ed7ce