It's not nearly "exactly" like the original, there's quite a few things different for better or worse. Not huge differences, but seeing as that was the look I was going for I was not sure how I could make it drastically far away from them and still have it look like them when I'm using this scale and color selection. Any advice would be great!

I don't think it defeats the purpose to base him off something else. I could have changed the style, dimensions, or whatever more but don't think it would have been as readable and as obvious that it was a Rivery City Ransom inspired take on mega-man. Once again any information about how I could improve on my work to not "defeat the purpose of the challenge" would be helpful.

As I read it the "purpose of the challenge" was to redesign mega-man, which I did based on inspiration from my favorite NES game.

i dont know how much of an "original work" you could call this when you basically made it look exactly like the original RCR sprites.

it defeats the purpose of the challenge completely.

It is a bit of a scene, but it does have both a shoot and take damage animation for the man. :) I'm glad you think it's fun idea, mashing of games(especially those with distinct art styles) always makes me smile.

It might be a bit closer to a scene than a sprite, but still a fun idea!