absolutely one of the most fun games i've ever played. everything feels so good. the music is incredible and puts you in a trance to help you knock out repeated attempts at these levels. this is a game where level design is put front and center to the point where you NOTICE how good it is, because you have to. the game flaunts it - it wants to show you. this window? it's here because the fast way to do this is to not even enter this building but just fall past it, and shoot a rocket through the window to clip the two enemies in here. these enemies? skip them until the very end when a barrel explodes and destroys the platform they're standing on. and everything is so READABLE. even your first time through a level feels fast. you can play so much of the game on reflex, and you glide through the levels shooting enemies and using powers when it feels right, blasting through red barriers and scanning the screen for the next little miniobjective that you are always perfectly equipped to overcome. ultimate flow state game.

also the book of life is i think honestly the best-feeling button press in a videogame. it's so insanely powerful and the levels are still designed to accommodate it. the distances you cover in that chapter are absurd. and the music. thousand pound butterfly is perfect for getting you as wired as possible. i was giggling to myself between stages of that chapter. it's exhilarating.