At the time of writing I haven't beaten this yet

This is not Symphony of the Night. This is not Super Metroid. This is not Hollow Knight or any other metroidvania we have had come out in the last 5 years.

This feels like an expanded version of the original NES Metroid, and I like it a lot for that.

There are some problems, but a lot are alleviated with practice. here's the only grievances I still have after 6 hours of play and exploring about 55% of the map.

-Teleporters/Save Points are usually not near each other and are not placed in the best places. It's a bit too easy to explore a new area, hit a dead end, and be unable to find a way to save and die, losing that progress. Save points are your truly only safe haven, as there is no part (at least that i have explored anyways) where a teleporter and save point are right next to each other with no enemies/obstacles in between, meaning even teleports aren't guarantees your progress won't be lost.

-there seems to be an issue where the game will randomly not accept controller inputs. this mainly happened with the first outside room right after starting the game and a few other spots. This isn't acceptable and I hope it gets fixed, HOWEVER, it rarely (maybe once) actually impacted something i was doing in game.

that's it really, i see a lot of complaints about the physics and the starting guns range

you guys know if you practice and you also explore you can get upgrades that make the beam attack really useful for taking out tougher enemies right? I only use the standard gun on enemies that i can hit easily (getting below the jellyfish in the water area and spamming normal shots etc.) like there's upgrades for both hp and secondary ammo? also uh
if you're still having trouble play on easy

again i'm not even that great at games imo but this is 100% playable with about an hour of practice. it took me about an hour to finally beat the second boss after which, the game got a lot easier.

actually here's a positive, you can explore and get things before it feels like you're supposed to. that's pretty cool

Idk if this is worth $5, maybe wait for a sale. but out of all the free games i got during coronavirus 2020, this was the one that i'm most pleased with that also surprised me the most