Earthbound Style

[Bullfrog]

Okay, if you're reading this, then you didn't immediately see my sprite, laugh, and post that it's crap. Yay!

I'm working on making a game, and the time has come for me to fill in all my placeholder graphics with something a little more substantial (actually, it's long past time...) I've always been a fan of Earthbound's graphics, and emulating it's style seemed to be within the realm of my skills.

My purpose in posting twofold. First, I want to make sure that the above sprite isn't complete, utter crap. I think it looks decent, otherwise I wouldn't have posted it. Even though my ego is huge, I realize that it only represents a small percentage of the population, and that others will have differing opinions. Right now I want to know if I have the skills to make decent looking sprites, or if I need to look for help from someone else. If it is crap, please let me know what needs to be fixed.

Second, I want to make sure that the fist reaction to my game isn't "OMG! Earthbound clone!", because it's most definitely not. I just want to look similar, sort of like how Illusion of Gaia and Secret of Mana look the same, but are still unique. I know it's hard to tell something like that with one (half) a sprite, but I want to make sure I'm not wasting my time before making more.

Criticisms, critiques, and more criticisms, please and thank you