Tongue mechanic in my game is handled with a series of raycasts, is this standard for 2D platformers?

When the player shoots their tongue, I have up to 9 raycasts come out for hit detection with a tiny interval between each one, with an animation that matches the distance of the tongue hit, and if you whiff all of them, it just sends out a basic animation.

Sometimes missing the tongue can feel sluggish since it still has to go through the process of all the raycasts.

Additionally, there are times where the tongue animation looks like it collides with something, but in reality all the raycasts missed and this can sometimes feel bad as the player.

Is there a better way to handle this? All feedback more than welcome

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