Dude, this is awesome.  I wish I could make this.  I love this kind of abstractness.  And the C64 colors are really nice here.

It... kinda looks like a war robot with a smiley face for a head holding a laser cannon...

Thanks! Well, thats part of the fun too, I think the subject is decently readable but ambiguity gives more possibilities of interpretations, and it's great that more people see more things (or the same things differently, you get the idea)... I'm still trying to find my own style, so, who knows, there may be more stuff like this coming ;)...

No no, I'm with ya. I use Photoshop and I take advantage of certain workflow enhancing techniques from time to time, but everything I produce, in the end, always has a solid coat of manual pixel-level work refining it.
This is indeed pixel art, but I was just sayin' it's so unconventional others probably won't really find it useful for study or inspiration so as to benefit their own pursuits.

You'll be the guy to splinter away from traditional pixels and start a surreal sub-genre, like back when the surrealists split from the realists. hurrrr

I do like this. And I'd love to see more, really. Is your goal to obscure discernable subject matter in seemingly random and irrational noisy texturing, or is there really no objective content here? Is this all pure abstraction? There's obviously a smiley face there, but I tend to see a brimmed hat as well, with a head below the hat, lower left.

If this is PA, (and I don't have the sharp eyes of the PJ bosses) this is one of the most innovative pieces I've seen lately.

It's funny that you think that way. Yes, this does have it's share of experimentation, but it still has the same meticulous pixel by pixel sorting philosophy beneath it, just like any pixel art. And I do hope this is considered pixel art, or I spent a bunch of hours on MS Paint for no good reason! (Yes, I assure you I didn't use weird tools or other crazy things)

Very unusual. Quite a departure from the pixel aesthetics norm. I like it for it's originality but am not sure it contributes much to the world of pixel art.

What software are you using? What was your method with this one? Not to call it's integrity into question, since the end-result is so odd I'd like to know what you did to get this.