Highly enjoyable.

I started off the first playthrough feeling pretty delighted with this, but by just before the midpoint was telling myself I wouldn’t play again if there wasn’t a Continue option. I think that was because as it progressed I started feeling more and more that the offense aspect really did feel like work, chipping things away so very slowly as later levels pile on more and more moving parts.

So I only did play a second time because the end game text uses language like ‘press any key to continue,’ and I thought that might mean ‘continue from the stage you reached.’

But I’m glad I played again even though that wasn’t the case. Trying specifically to play more efficiently made it more fun an experience. And it turns out that on the first attempt I didn’t even realize there was a player-health system. (I only noticed the inner ring toward the end, and I was guessing shots fired from inside the ring might be stronger?)

Two possible bugs:

1. On my first attempt I’m pretty sure I spawned right in the path of a laser at the beginning of the level following the midpoint notification. It’s likely I just hadn’t gotten my bearings yet and the laser could have been avoided if I was more on the ball, but it still felt like a cheap shot, especially in a game with limited lives.

2. I probably wouldn’t have completed the final level (the one that starts off with nothing to dodge but gets progressively more chaotic as you release more of the enemy’s shooters) if not for what I suspect might be unintended behavior: after losing a life on that level and respawning, all the shooters’ shoot-timers are in sync with each other, whereas I’m pretty sure before dying their timers are offset based on exactly when you released each one. Still, I only finished with one hit point remaining (but I’m probably not very good as these sorts of games).