Hear me out. This game is flawed... like, heavily flawed. It's got no i-frames. It needs to be beat in one sitting. It's cryptic as hell. Even then... it's kinda got this charm to it. This has to be one of the first ever Metroidvanias to actually... exist! I like its setting, a musical kingdom. And I found it to be kinda relaxing to methodically clear rooms and progress after a tough boss fight. That being said, I can't exactly call this a good game, or recommend it to the average gamer. I just think it's a little over-hated.

I guess this really is the first Metroidvania since it did come out a few months after the other two. Probably not directly inspired, but it sure feels like it. You also seem some Super Mario Bros flavors added here. (The boss fights come close to straight up plagiarizing Bowser's movement from SMB). Overall it's really a solid action platformer with some really nice attention to detail in some animations and level design. My biggest gripes are that there are too many destructible blocks which forces you to run around the entire game shooting at everything and the music minigame is basically Avalanche and I hate Avalanche.