What may at first appear to be a minimalist little metroidvania shooter will quickly reveal itself to be a punishing grind of an experience.

Every single screen of this game felt like it was a slow crawl from start to finish. I never felt like I was getting better at any point just struggling my way from one checkpoint to the next. The controls are very stiff and clunky, and while the game beautifully captures the game boy art and music, the punishing gameplay is a big distraction from it.

The story was kind of a blur as you grind from one boss to the next until you arrive at one of the multiple endings. But it was so much work that it wasn't fun enough for me to go back and experience the others.

I unlocked a few different characters but they don't make much of any difference to the gameplay which remains the same from start to finish.