Thanks to everyone who tried the game at the Jam and/or gave me feedback! Many of you asked if it was a two-player game -- not the original plan. But your questions (and playing the superfun HORSE Beat Off Xtreme) encouraged me to consider how a two-player version might work, and I came up with a mechanic I kinda like:

P1 controls the left paddle.
P2 controls the right paddle.
Pellets spawn on both sides of the screen and move in opposite directions, just like now.
Both players can either let any given pellet by (-1 point) or bounce it back toward the other player.

The twist is that the game is cooperative, not competitive.

If P1 bounces a pellet towards P2 and P2 catches it with her paddle, +1 point to the players' combined score. But if P2 misses the bounced pellet, -2 points to combined score. Play continues until the end of the level is reached -- instead of Game Over, I'd just allow negative values in the high score table.

If you read this far, wow, thanks! What do you think?

Can't explain why, but even if it makes my brain hurt, I can't stop playing.