Overall Gameplay (9.5 / 13 points)

• Player Experience: 6.5/10
• Mechanical Polish: 3/3

Comments: This entry bit off almost exactly what it could chew, and I appreciated that. I had fun, but after about 10 minutes, I was ready to see the conclusion - and that's exactly when the game ended. Nice! If I remember correctly, there were actually more bosses (3) than there were regular enemies (2). It's cool to see a good number of bosses in a jam game, but seeing the same two enemies appear over and over again was disappointing, especially since neither had particularly interesting attack patterns. The levels themselves (particularly the last couple) were a bit more of a chore than a challenge unfortunately as they only ever differed from each other in shape and not in substance. Frankly I was also pretty disappointed with the boss designs. The first boss essentially just used regular enemies (and allowed you to fight them at your own pace), and for each of the last two bosses I spent ten seconds going "oh, this is how I damage them" and then I never even so much as took damage myself. The only time I died in my playthrough (or even came anywhere near close to dying) was during the first boss when I didn't realize that the spinning squares could hurt me. The platforming itself had opportunities to introduce some non-linear paths or even some sorts of puzzles using keys, but again I find myself disappointed. I'm using the word "disappointed" a lot in this write-up only because this game laid such an amazing foundation! It just failed to fully capitalize on it.

Theme Inclusion (4.5 / 6 points)

Comments: The theme connection feels just a tiny bit shoehorned into the game. I had to go back through the README after my playthrough to figure out what the theme connection was at all, since the core game only talks about the plot at the end.

Overall Presentation (9 / 10 points)

• General Presentation: 3.5/4
• Quality of Graphics: 3.5/4
• Quality of Audio: 2/2

Comments: I generally loved the presentation of this game. There was a crisp, consistent, and effective audiovisual style that anchored the game's mood very well. HUGE props for the soundtrack! I do wish there was some mention of the plot or the controls in the intro so that I didn't need the README. I also found that a couple of sprites didn't do a great job of communicating to the player what they were (eg. the orbiting squares in the first boss).