So here's the first level of sombreros. Looking for feedback before I duplicate frames.
The first level is quite pretty and has a nice amount of variety... however, I feel that the most efficient and safe way to play this is to not shoot the guys at all but to just run past them. In fact, the mere application of a gate past that bridge, forcing progress to a halt, results in the second-most climactic scene in the level after the boss. I think you could create something joyously tense if you made the second or subsequent levels auto-scrolling. Either that, or stop the enemies from halting whenever they loose a bullet.
The time-freeze-targeting seems to slow the pace of the game down. It makes sense for the very promising 'duel' event, but not quite so much for the easily escaped mooks in the remainder of the level. Maybe if there was some sort of bonus for using it instead of just free-shooting, and maybe if it didn't pause the enemies and bullets outright but slowed them down to a trickle, so that you had a bit of pressure to line up your targets quickly.
One word about the boss: while the word "pry" is part of the meme you're referencing, it doesn't make any sense at all in the context of hats and heads, which don't have fingers or hooks or anything to pry apart.
Good job on the production values for the graphics and music, by the way.
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