A Metroidvania with retro-ish platform-shooting action that is a lot more like Contra or Contra III than Metroid. As someone who grew up playing a lot of platform shooters on 8 & 16-bit consoles (and still does to this day), I believe this is how the game tries to stand out among Metroidvanias.

In true spirit of retro platform shooters: Eight cardinal directions, diagonal aim-lock, and short-hops are all you get.

The ammo system encourages players to hone their aim and avoid overkilling enemies instead of running around spamming bullets in anticipation of targets; this is NOT a "run & gun" game, per se.

The platforming handles quite nicely, and isn't too demanding outside of a few areas with moving platforms.

A decent variety of weapons to suit one's playing style or for particular situations. (Harpoon rifle is my favorite; a strong, single-projectile weapon that requires more precision than others.)

The map layout isn't terribly complex. Nothing too puzzlic in terms of room layouts, no SECRET breakable walls. Just gotta be sure to check all corners of larger rooms and ensure full map coverage because some upgrade rooms are not marked on the acquired area maps.

There are extra collectibles that are inconsequential outside of Achievements. Pretty fun to scour for, nonetheless. They are "hidden" in supply containers sitting in plain sight that are sometimes slightly more difficult to reach (depending on your abilities).

Neato soundtrack. Kinda reminds me of Dance With The Dead with chiptunes mixed in.

My only complaint is that the reserve weapon is [understandably] quite weak, which isn't too bad for dealing with minor enemies that will likely drop ammo for other guns on defeat, but bosses are bullet sponges that provide no drops mid-fight. So unless you collect every ammo expansion and/or weapon upgrade possibly available before facing them, you will spend much more time dealing with their attack patterns (which is fine by me, but some fights just seemed to go on for far too long once I am left with only the peashooter, is all).

Only takes a few hours to beat. Might be fun to speedrun; finding an efficient path that strikes a balance between exploring to power up or going straight for boss fights, but that's beyond my scope.