Thanks; its one of my favorite things to work on :D

The next one will most likely be the robot firing its actual weapon, but its probably going to be the most difficult one up to now; if there's one thing harder for me than making a good explosion, its coming up with a decent looking projectile. Me being kind of a perfectionist isn't helpful with that.

When you're trying to make a "perfect" thing for something else to shoot, it goes from easy as cake to...hard as balls.

 Explosions are kind of intimidating at first, but if you study them for a little while, it is something pretty easy to get the hang of. I def recommend checking some out, and if you are up to it, maybe trying another explosion based on the same idea. I have really liked all the crab-bot sprites thus far =]

You could always look at real explosions for reference.

The explosion seems to go on for a little too long it just sort of hangs there. Other than that looks good.