Quirby's seemingly clever assortment of Pixels

[Rederik_Wood]

The walk cycle is rather harsh in how rough it is with the quick, snappy movements. Another point with his legs is that he appears to be an upside-down helicopter, in regards that his left and right legs seem to change positions on his body as he steps, something that no human being can accomplish in realistic and nonfatal/noncrippling circumstances.

No doubt you based this off of the simple walk cycle Mario has in the first Super Mario Brothers game, which by using reference is a good start, but there's a discrepancy here: Mario's sprite is so simple, it's ambiguous which leg we're looking at, whereas with yours, the dither shading has made it obvious as to which leg it is. If you're going to keep it obvious, you want to double the number of frames so that the legs do not pull a switcheroo.

Try to keep the character centered between the maximum and minimum strides of the legs, the human body does not jerk like that while walking, it should be smooth, not choppy, within the side view, the torso and head should only be seen rising and falling with the strides as the legs are extended, and brought back to full posture.