Thanks for all the responses, I think I'm gonna try a few combinations of the two styles(I want this to look good)

@Landersolon - I was going for a "lumbering, hulking muscle-man- look", something you'd see in comic book art, were the inspiration for the game comes from.  s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/77/71/2b/77712b38cf6fcb3a3a69b03d0ac5c965.jpg

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/53/LoboComics.png/250px-LoboComics.png

And I felt like the character hunched over would fit a "heavy-build", but yeah, he's not wounded.

Also, is the character wounded? the gait looks injured when on those dainty (not heavy or clunky) feet.

I like what you have here. 

more tips about changing "new" to read as a man:

1. thicken the narrow waist, especially that dent in one of the frames.

2. Change the jaw protusion and eye style to look more sunken-eyed and square. although men and women can both have square and round heads and sunken or big eyes, this particular combination can be a bit difficult on pixel art.

I like them! Since Pix.Ed. Said plenty, I'll say that there's nothing confusing about having women with mucles, but if you've intended this design to look like a man, remember that with limited size and space to work, you've got to rely on every pixel to imply your intended effect. Focus on chest and hair, since that's where the most surface area is and therefore you've got the most options for conveying gender/sex. That's just my take though! Good animations.

Thanks for the response, I atually spoke to a friend briefly about the characters looking a bit feminine, so more redesigns ARE neccesary, and Im glad I can do this while I'm still early in developement. Thanks

Both characters look female to me so the muscles are strange. Also the old design is more consistent, in the new one the head and body seem to have different styles and the muscles are just weirdly outlined. You ahould rely more on contrast and tone changes to denote depth for the muscles and features rather than lines which dont come accross as you intend at all. Also the old walk cycle is more fluid and subtle that the new one, but at this size you should look at shifting pixel colors around rather than moving pixels to get more of a subpixel movement effect. Thanks for sharing.