I played the demo a few times, enough to beat the stage (but not without using continues though). So here are my impressions, which I think mostly align with the others' feedback :
What I liked :
- The presentation is top notch : Graphics, but also music, sound effects and the general amount of care given to the title screen as well as the intro and warning sequences are enjoyable and leave a really good first impression.
- When at full power, the pacing is quite good. Having three bosses in a single stage could have been too much, but they can go down pretty fast.
- The visibility and hitbox options are a nice touch
What I didn't like :
- The lasers from the small enemies need some serious warning. A sudden death to a laser the player couldn't know was going to appear is frustrating. Oddly enough, the laser attack telegraphing is well done on the bosses, so that means you know how to do it.
- The turrets can fire even when they are at the very left of the screen where you can't even hit them with your shot. That feels unfair.
- Dying reduces your firepower way too much, leading to chain deaths in some tight places (the corridor before the second boss for instance)
- Some turrets are unreachable, or at least very difficult to hit without using a bomb because they are at the right of a wall. If you want to horizontally align with them to kill them, you'll just crash into the wall.
- Power ups are way too eager to leave the screen
What I suggest :
- I suggest you color-code the enemies who will drop the power-up on destruction if that is not determined at the moment of destruction. Darius games do that for instance, and you immediatly know what enemy should be destroyed first.
- Increase the contrast bewteen the turrets and the walls they stand on. Right now, they don't stand enough and sometimes blend into each other.
- The startup sequence should be skippable with the press of a button.
- Continuing shouldn't be done with the shot button as you'll be pressing this button almost all the time. The first time around, I continued without even realizing it.
- Bombs feel more like secondary weapons than actual bombs, while the burst is closer to what I would think of as a defensive bomb. Maybe calling the bombs a "special attack" or something like that would make more sense?
- Add some feedback to tell the player who just used a burst when he can use it again. Speaking of the burst, make sure the full game can be cleared without it.
- The first boss' blue homing bombs can be difficult to see because they flash and almost disappear before heading for you. You should make them fully visible at all times.
- The second boss has a mix between super fast patterns and claustrophobic maze-like ones, which is unsettling. Balance the boss as to give it either one of those pattern philosophies but not both at the same time.
- The third boss' flame walls at the top or the bottom of the screen didn't look like they could kill me due to their low contrast but it seems they are supposed to be dangerous. Making them stand out more could clear up that confusion.
- The regular enemy agressiveness is really high, especially in that horizontal corridor section before the second boss. It feels like they are just as agressive as the enemies before, but because your movement is severely limited by the walls, it comes off as much more tricky. I suggest you tone done the fire rate a bit in that section.
Good luck with your game! It looks quite promising.