Pretty cool game once you figure out the controls. And you can never go wrong with explosions.

Interesting concept. The sound effects match the retro graphics perfectly. +1 for the music tempo increasing as the stakes get higher.

Love the title screen music and the explosive gameplay!

Incredible game! 5 stars for innovation, I've never seen something like this before where you gain your enemys' abilities as they destroy you! The controls were a bit funky but once i got used to them it was actually really easy to use! I got a 2x sword and 2x gun weapon combo for BIG POINTS!

Wasn't entirely sure what was going on but pretty awesome nonetheless!

Very cool little game, I love that you have to hurt yourself to upgrade yourself. Very neat concept :P Sound could've used some variety though, it got a little annoying after a while.

Weapon adaption is a great take on the theme. Nice retro look and good controls (+1 to add WASD also). Good job.

The upgrade mechanics are really interesting! It's a little bit confusing here and there, but works well :)

I loved the whirlwind plus guns combo. Neat game! :D

Neat little game, although SFX did get annoying after awhile. The time to shoot bullets is a tad tedious waiting for it shoot, but overall, good job!

Nice game - interesting core mechanic, and lots of nice touches.

Game could have used a little more polish - the movement was a bit weird and you tended to leave your engine trail behind if you move too quickly. Also a player death sequence would have been nice as when you have swords equipped you sometimes don't really know if you killed an opponent or they killed you.

Enjoyed it though - Was fun stabbing up the enemy ships :)

Very playable.

Nice entry !

Good idea, but using mouse and keyboard this way in such a game a bit confusing.

Very unique take on shoot em ups. The idea that getting hit can help you in various ways depending on what hit you is very interesting. That said, I don't know that the game gave enough of a reason for the player to actively seek out getting hit. So I still tried to avoid every single enemy, and when I accidentally got hit, my upgrade was essentially random, because I had not intended to get hit by that enemy. If you could find a way to make players actually try to get hit someties, I think that would really put this idea over the top. Really cool game, nice work!

Had a lot of fun playing this game. Those super-powers are terribly broken, but that's kind of why I like the game!

Graphics are a little sketchy, and the aiming seems a little broken: bullets fire off at odd angles or at an incorrect time while rotating. A few juices could be used to make the hitting-into-enemies a little more frightening, but well done!

Lots of games i've seen so far with stencyl were really lacking and pathetic, but this one was most certainly better than the rest. pretty challanging, but a nice game.

Putting the jam version on Kongregate, that's brave.

Nice little game, good music and concept. Great job!
Check ours too http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=44367

Really interesting idea! Nice music & graphics, the upgrade mechanics are pretty unique. I would prefer the controls to be a little simplified, but other than that, good job!

Great job on creating a sense of frantic action! I really liked how it seemed that game was actually communicating with the player rather than just having a bunch of boring instructions.

I feel like the controls are a little uncomfortable. Having the option to use WASD instead of the arrow keys would have been spectacular. That said, it's a fun little shooter. I like that player attacks are so limited - it's a nice change of pace from the norm with shooters which feature endless streams of tiny, individually meaningless bullets.

I was skeptical about the mechanic, but it actually works quite well. The game gets harder as you progress but you also get stronger when you're dealt damage, which strikes a nice balance of putting you right back in the action while never feeling too easy.
My main complaint is the beginning, i'm led to avoid the enemies for as long as i can but the game only picks up when you kill them, so to effectively start the game you need to get hit, and that doesn't feel great. I'd suggest starting the game with a weapon to avoid that, or only displaying the damage after the first hit.
+1 to WASD controls, too. Nice work!

Nice one,
With this game you've got to let go of your shooter instincts.
Therefore it takes a bit of time to get used to it, but it's fun trying and getting shot is good (for a while).

Ok I didn't get it at first but nice concept!

Simple but efficient! Game mechanics are quite original, very fun to play!

Fun and frantic! I really like the idea of becoming more powerful as you get closer to death, and it creates a nice risk/reward element where I was required to act strategically instead of relying purely on my reflexes to carry me through.

I wish coins spawned a bit more frequently, but that might unbalance things since the superpowers are so powerful. Nice work overall! Feedback concluded. ^_^

I liked the guns. On my second try, I went for swords, but didn't like them as much. They're simply too dangerous when approaching gun ships that could fire at any moment. Given the massive amount of control granted by hooking ship position directly to mouse position, the optimal strategy seems to be to focus primarily on dodging everything, and using guns to slowly take everyone out. I ended up just spinning in a circle with four guns for a while before I eventually just got sloppy and died.

It's a compelling concept, but I feel it needs some more nuance to drive interesting decisions. Maybe also a way to slowly grow in power while *reversing* some of the damage, so that there's a stronger sense of progression.

Very nice! Once I got used to the controls I found them to be very intuitive and effective. The presentation was great and the whole game feels really polished. Good work!

That was fun! Love the idea of the 'dangerous tip', well done!

I like a lot about the game, but not the forced humor in the commentary. This game feels near complete, but I'd like to see more options or levels, and more enemies. Just more of what's here. Good game!