Entertainment Hero

Hi!
I need a key for let's play.
Watch my channel description:
https://www.youtube.com/user/zenko1985/about
I have a program that allows to assign keyboard controls to mouse movements.
Here are some of my videos:
https://youtu.be/fbfnIEQJC7I
https://youtu.be/98EZDk3KC3Y

Playing the improved demo has me wondering if the first demo was really just that much worse than this that I'd give it a 3/5 compared to the 4/5 I just gave it.

I mean, wow, it actually controls well now, I love the music track that plays in Metal Land (though that may be personal taste partially), the level design here is pretty nice, and it just generally plays pretty well now. TBH, I think the characters starts moving close enough to instantly that, if you can't get the character starting and stopping instantly, it'd probably be close enough anyways.

Still the occasional issue where background looks like foreground (that rail for the moving platform in the intro stage threw me off for a while if nothing else), but other than that, this is really starting to shape up!

The graphics may be a bit simple, but aside from the player character it's consistent enough that I can excuse it. It'd be nice if the player character fit the rest of the style (or maybe vice-versa), but eh, I personally can look past a few small graphical quirks if the gameplay is solid enough, and as of now, I think it really is. :)

Okay, first off, let me start by saying that I overall did have some fun with this and I definitely see potential here.

Now let me get the negatives out of the way. That way, I can end this on a positive note:

Here's the biggest issue I had: Your control mapping program lists several controls that aren't used anywhere in the game at all, and a lot of them that are used aren't exactly labeled well enough to differentiate them from the ones that aren't used. Setting up a good control scheme was just plain painful. If it's possible to do so at all, and not just some impossible to work around limitation of Unity, please, please, PLEASE fix the control remapping screen.

Now for the mid-tier complaints:

The graphics are rather inconsistent and sometimes it isn't obvious whether something is part of the background or part of the foreground.

Also, the physics definitely need some work, it takes a bit too long for the player to start and stop, which can sometimes be the difference between life and death.

Another thing worth noting is that the intro stage really needed a boss battle. I didn't reach the end of the other stage before dying, so I don't know if that stage had one either admittedly.

Now for a few smaller nitpicks: Your intro stage music really could use some work. There were also a few segments where it felt like I was waiting around just a bit too long. I don't think you're supposed to be able to walk right past the turrets to hit their weakpoints, not to mention that the weakpoints in question should probably be a bit more obvious. And for my last smaller nitpick, I didn't find very many of the enemy and character designs to be particularly memorable.

Oh, and due to the respawning code being bugged (which you thankfully mention in the description, so I know what's going on there at least), I can't tell you whether the checkpoint placement is good yet, that will have to wait for later.

Now, on to the things I actually liked...

From what I've played so far, you introduce challenges rather nicely. I liked the way you changed things up with the turrets as time went on, and the usage of large moving platforms was actually quite clever! The intro stage, while short, does a good job of explaining a few things, such as the fact that you can drop through platforms, which could be used in some rather neat ways later in the game. (Contra 3: The Alien Wars's first boss battle springs to mind.)

Also, the second stage had a rather catchy (though admittedly a bit generic) music playing in the background, which was rather nice indeed.

The controls were usually nice and responsive, even if I wasn't a huge fan of the actual physics as mentioned earlier, and the projectile hitboxes were forgiving enough that I often found it quite easy to shoot at my intended target, which felt like a rather nice touch to me.

I know I may have had more to say about the negatives than the positives, but that's mostly because I really, really would like to see this game reach its full potential, and all of those issues are, in one way or another, standing out to me as things that could be holding it back. Also, I get that this is early in development, so I can admittedly understand why the game has these issues in the first place.

Oh, one more thing: Though it's a bit messy in ways, I do overall kind of like the logo the game has.