Some cool ideas at play here, but overall I found it to be pretty middle-of-the-pack in terms of 8-bit throwback platformers. Which is really saying something -- if this would've come out 10 years ago, it would've been amazing, but there's just been so much in the space since.

The guard/parry is a neat idea, but I didn't find it executable reliably enough to really take advantage of it. And tying the amount of weapons you have to the difficult (in some way? I don't think it's ever really explained) is neat, but I just ended up unloading a bunch of weapons every now and then to lower the danger level.

Hopping out of the mech is a fun idea (very Blaster Master), but it's almost always forced on you, making the pilot sections less about exploring the levels and finding nooks and crannies and more about getting really de-powered for a not-so-fun stretch until you can get the mech back.

Breaking the weapons to fire off their spells is neat. Some of the music is great. The sprites are fun. But overall, I thought it was just ok.