This game’s foremost sin is its infinitely respawning enemies set to the world’s worst jazz fusion, but its second worst sin is just how deeply painful the backtracking is. Imagine a metroidvania where every new move you get goes away whenever you get hit, and you have to then go all the way back to where you got the move and pick it up again. And you can bank them up but only by manually entering the level, grabbing the move, and then reloading the level and grabbing it again. That’s exactly how this is – holding onto a specific costume you need to get a secret statue is SO arduous.
That being said, I just did level 10 (the Escher-ish painter themed level) and really enjoyed it. For some reason, it was way easier than the frustratingly difficult previous 2-3 areas. Very noticeable drop in difficulty. I think their level sequencing was a bit off.