Multiverse Mashup Sprite Critique

[LisGaming]

Hey! I'm new to the forums but I've always been a fan of the site. I'm working on a passion project of mine called Multiverse Mashup. The idea is a Smash Bros-ish mascot party brawler with half-original-half-homage characters from very different universes fighting each other. The look of the project is supposed to be reminiscent of Nintendo published NES era games (like Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Kid Icarus) but with a slightly more modern aesthetic.  I thought it would be a good idea to open up a thread to share my sprites and get some help because what's the creative process without constructive criticism? Anyway any feedback would be much appreciated!

Currently I'm working with a 16 color palette that combines and modifies some colors from this palette by Android Arts and the Japanese Machine Palette (JMP):

   

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Okay this should give you an idea of what I'm going for. I have two characters so far; one character is a cute side scrolling platform mascot while the other is a classic fighting game homage. I don't feel like either character is entirely there yet, and I'm not sure about how well they juxtapose. Again, I would really appreciate any and all kinds of comments. Thanks!

         

[Virtuaboy123]

Will you be giving some of your characters an outline?

The little dog looks fine in terms of side scrolling/platformer look. Assuming you want this character feel flat like Mr. Game and watch.

The Girl Fighter could have a more cheesy/bad stance to go along with Nes style fighting games. Maybe even make her a little bit bigger

Her Ryu-look could also be changed for some other fighting character since Street Fighter never appeared on NES.


Here's an edit, one is the character in a ye ar kungfu costume/stance, the other is the Kungfu costume/stance.

[Cloud6625]

I like the idea of the game, sounds like it would be fun.

I have one question. About how far are you going with the NES aesthetic? You currently have a few more colors on the characters than would actually be possible on an NES. A typical NES game could use 3 colors and a transparency, although some people like to stretch it to 4 or 5 colors due to some tricks Megaman did back in the day, but anyway, you're characters appear to both have 6-7 colors and transparency. So I'm just curious if one of the "modern aesthetic" choices is more colors?

The platforming character's body is also forward while their head is starring to the right. I think their body should be turned more in the direction of their head.

[LisGaming]

Will you be giving some of your characters an outline?

The little dog looks fine in terms of side scrolling/platformer look. Assuming you want this character feel flat like Mr. Game and watch.

The Girl Fighter could have a more cheesy/bad stance to go along with Nes style fighting games. Maybe even make her a little bit bigger

Her Ryu-look could also be changed for some other fighting  character since Street Fighter never appeared on NES.


Here's an edit, one is the character in a ye ar kungfu costume/stance, the other is the Kungfu costume/stance.

When you say outline do you mean like a write-up character outline or a literal pixel outline?   Yes to the write-up and no to the pixel outline. I was thinking about leaving everything more flat like Super Mario and less outlined/detailed like Mega Man or Castlevania.

Hahaha I love the early fighting game/Kung Fu stance but I'm afraid people might not see it as emulating retro errors and more like an error of my own. Though I love the idea of that callback for maybe a taunt or even a separate more jokey character. Though I think you're right in that I should tone down the Ryu-ness of her design. I want the spriting style to be retro-y but I'm not tied to the character designs being purely retro. A lot of fighting games have that sort of gi wearing character and maybe I should take more inspiration from KoF, MK, etc.

Thanks! You're really helping me think about how I'm approaching this!

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I like the idea of the game, sounds like it would be fun.

I have one question. About how far are you going with the NES aesthetic? You currently have a few more colors on the characters than would actually be possible on an NES. A typical NES game could use 3 colors and a transparency, although some people like to stretch it to 4 or 5 colors due to some tricks Megaman did back in the day, but anyway, you're characters appear to both have 6-7 colors and transparency. So I'm just curious if one of the "modern aesthetic" choices is more colors?

The platforming character's body is also forward while their head is starring to the right. I think their body should be turned more in the direction of their head.

I'm glad you like the idea!

So I know I'm waaaaaaay over technical limitations so to compensate I'm only working with a 16 color palette that I feel gives a retro-ish feel to things, while not being truly retro, kinda like Pico-8. Technical limitations kinda dictated design in the NES era (which is sooo cool) so I'm trying to keep that in mind when designing characters, giving them simple color combinations and easy to read shapes and details, but I don't want those limitations to well limit the freedom I have when initially designing the characters too much. Hopefully that makes sense and feel free to give me any questions/advice on accomplishing that look. I think I'll update the original post soon to better explain the style premise and whatnot.

Ahhhh I thought the head on the dog was messed up but it's actually just not matching her body. Thanks for that! Figuring out what was wrong was killing me. I'll give it another go!