It's meant to be balanced with the turns of the road, upgrades spoil the balance. I understand where you're coming from but we're going for the OutRun feel.
Steering is very stiff, but my biggest issue is that I keep turning the wrong way down one-way streets. It would be nice if there was an indication of traffic direction AND a difference in the lines between one-way (i.e. dashed single white lines) and two-way (i.e. solid double yellow lines)
The sword reversion when hit & no idea about life left are frustrating. Quite a few foreground items that become just cumbersome when moving around. On/Off ladders is a little flaky. I'd like to walk past a ladder with scaling 3 rungs in the process. Why am I gathering all these coins?
Controls are unresponsive. Had times when jump would not respond when switching screen. Art style makes it difficult to tell foreground images from background images. I ran square into a spike within 10 seconds without realizing what it was. Some direction of the direction you should proceed would be nice. Ultimately a nice start, but some refinement would be nice.
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It's meant to be balanced with the turns of the road, upgrades spoil the balance. I understand where you're coming from but we're going for the OutRun feel.