XL-ent progress in playability

 Alright, i'm thinking perhaps rather than a maze where touching the walls knocks you out, it's a maze where touching each segment in order and by hitting its entry surface will light it up. you must light all the maze segments in order to pass the level.

flying obstacles could be power-ups (extra energy, something to force you on the path for a few seconds, etc). or they could be handicaps (knock your stored energy down by some factor, make your ship incapable of triggering maze segments for a short time, modify acceleration rates, etc)

For now, though, navigating with an accelerometer is clearly more fun. cranking makes the ship wiggle about frantically and which uses energy as fast as you generate it, forcing you to crank calmly. i can see how a player would be motivated to avoid handicaps and seek out power-ups while attempting to navigate the maze. there's a good chance you'll run out of energy by the time the last maze segment scrolls past you... so already on level 1 there is some effort required. next up: scaling that effort over the various levels and updating the scoring mechanics.

Low level maze

High level maze