So I booted it up. It looked kind of fun, despite not being able to control your velocity to finish off enemies or anything like that, etc. Kind of old school. I was playing the campaign mode. On the first level, everything was pretty trivial. And then the first boss one-hit kills you, and you have to replay the whole level just to get another very brief chance to *maybe* learn how to avoid all of that. After dying three times and still not knowing exactly how it works, I made this post.

Is the whole game more or less like this? Maybe modern games are spoiling me a little, but it's a bit annoying, and replaying an easy level over and over isn't enjoyable.

(Other than that, it looks fun - it compares favorably with all of the free shooters on Kongregate.com, for example.)

Inconsistent difficulty is putting it lightly.

Yes, yes they are. And it is annoying, but 2 player arcade is a blast

Oh good, I thought it was only me. I still havent beaten the first level, despite not dying once during anything but the boss.

Still a fun game though

Playing the arcade version is good way to practice the game. You will get some continues and don't have to start all over if you die.

Wow, that makes a difference. Thanks.
I've also found that the first boss is slightly harder than other things immediately before or after, generally. It's relatively safe to be directly to the right or left of it, when in doubt - it seems to lunge forward diagonally, if I remember correctly. Once you beat that level, it feels more balanced and appropriately challenging, at least for a while to come. It's just a bit of a turn-off to be hit with an unexpectedly hard challenge at the very start - it tricks you into thinking you've picked up a nigh-impossible game, when really it's not (so far).

A boss early in episode 2 is hard to dodge, but has little enough health that I found myself killing it before I even had any pattern figured out other than that I had to stay away from the sides of the screens where the arms one-hit you.

This game is getting better. The customization gets a bit more fun once the money starts to pile up, too.