Rarely remotely engaging. Simple to a fault. The collectathon elements are dull as nearly every secret is just a very clear branching path that acts as a 10 second distraction before you're back on the main path again. The platforming manages to be very flat and uninteresting despite the somewhat whimsical layouts. Level gimmicks besides the beat blocks taken from Mario don't ever add anything of note. Water balls or grind rails for example get very little non-automated gameplay. I feel like I'm just playing a prettier version of subway surfers, completely going through the motions. There's of course a tad more depth if you get into speedrunning it, as is true with just about any game...But the collectibles first focus encourages you to follow the already crushingly linear path most of the time. S ranks being tied to collectibles and no death runs and not on time makes me get bored of playing the stage long before I want to speedrun it--and the lack of movement options makes the prospect of speedrunning not all that interesting anyway.

I do not understand the Sonic comparisons. Sonic at its core is ENTIRELY about momentum. That's what made it cool to begin with. The competition often had very stagnant, binary movement speeds and flat ground. Sonic brought physics based gameplay to the table that made the landscape directly effect your movement options, it's dynamic. Lunistice, even played by the world record holder, is going to move at one set speed the entire way through. Besides of course the -run a bit faster- floors some stages feature...Said stages doing very little with the idea and generally having even tamer platforming than there already was to make up for the slight increase in speed. There's just not really any interesting movement options. You can combine your jump and spin attack to get a higher vertical jump, sacrificing your triple jump...But most of the game doesn't have much verticality. It's a lot of mindlessly holding forward and jumping when you reach a ledge.

Dunno, I hate being hard on small indie games with an insanely low price point. Like man I dream of being talented enough to make something like this. But besides the retro aesthetic I honestly just don't get anything out of it. Despite its very short run time it really overstays its welcome for me. It's like if Toree 3D was 2 hours long and had an extra 5-6 hours of repeat content for completionists. I was already falling off halfway through a casual run let alone going back for 100% cleanup and then doing it all again as a slightly different character 2 more times afterwards. The levels were mid the first time I played them let alone the 4th time on. I just really think platformers with a mostly horizontal layout need to have legitimate obstacles and satisfying movement. 'Cuz otherwise it's like you're playing a Mario Maker level composed entirely of semisolid platforms spaced 4 blocks apart from beginning to end. This is Crash Bandicoot with somehow less of a movement focus, less level variety, less ideas, ineffective enemies, and no sense of adventure or progression. Just has me yawning so hard I'm blinded by tears forming.

Though seeing as most people seem to be into it, this game clearly has an audience and I think that's nifty. If you're less jaded by platformers that play themselves you'll probably vibe with this game a lot more than me. I'm just a bit exhausted by retro throwbacks featuring nothing that made retro games good.