Interesting twists on a classic! Noted a couple of observations below:
- Not sure if intended, but the fact that enemies mostly follow the player plank (left/right) give me some level of control over combo-ing off the top of enemies.
- Seems to have performance issues, with some input lags. This gets noticeably worsened with the lightning powerup, lagging every lightning chain.
- The short pause every time the pong hit the plank doesn't feel satisfying. For me it reduces smoothness of the gameplay
- The laser weapon provides some visual cue before actually shooting. But the window is too brief for players to respond to and try to lure enemies into the area of damage. Maybe that's your intention, but I feel allowing players to respond that way can give them more agency.
- HP dropped by 2 when player blue pong hit screen bottom. 1 hp drop is more intuitive.
- Your black background aesthetics is good, but I'd suggest some additional glow on your sprites.
- At the start of new wave, I'd suggest giving a 3-2-1 countdown, can be quite abrupt and cause players to drop ball right from beginning which can feel bad experience-wise.
Overall, lost of potentials!!! Keep up the good work!
On a different note, would much appreciate if you could give my game a try :) It's a twist on Tetris, turning it into a turn-based combat system, and rewards well-planned piece placement over speed. Jam page