in easy words i wanted to say: cool work but i couldn't see that it's a human in the middle of your art at the first time seeing it.....i thought it's a turtle with a laser on it's back

Neocrone: I don't understand everything your saying  but ground/water are 16x16 tiled and with clouds, i actually made 3 huge clouds and placed them there like they would be in a "game" expect in a game they would move and make a nice floating effect. Anything in this aren't based on any game expect i kinda wanted "Contra" to C64 feeling into it. Chars were kinda hard to make look like a human with mcol and in so small size but yeah i think it turned out quite good...

Stickman and Spherical Ice: I'll try to make it better when i have more time

Is this based on a real game? if so it's ok (because you would have designed the charakters like in the real game) but if you invented the charakters, then i don't like this...before i could see that the hero is a guy with a gun i believed that it's a turtle with a laser cannon on mounted it's back (the head of the human and his bandana where the laser gun for me, the rest the turtle and the back part of the gun was the turtles head for me). i really needed some looks on it to see what it is. the stage is reaaally good, i like the water and the clouds. so all in all it's a 4/5 for me because i couldn't indentify the hero as human (please correct me if i'm the only one seeing this turtle or if it was a real game....then it would be great!)

PS: if u don't understand me right please ask because i'm german :D

That's nice, but I'm not to sure about the clouds. You could also add some other elements such as HighScore, Points, Weapons selection, 1P/2P etc.

While it is better, the left side seems to be very empty, still. Also, the text is still cramped. D:

I've edited it now hope ya like it

It looks great, but, as the others have said, it's a tad empty, don't you think? Perhaps add a monster for the dude to kill? Some birds or something in the background?

edit: also, the life and ammo text at the bottom is faaaaaaar too squashed.

 I agree. Some more stuff would be nice.  DODADS!

Cool, but not enough stuff. Adding some monsters, bonuses etc.  will make picture more lively.