Thanks everyone!
- Conceit your edit is really amazing - I'm learning a lot about lighting and shading just from this thread, hahaha. I'll reference yours when I get a chance to work on the sprite more, particularly the way you got the textures down. Thanks for the links too, those were really helpful. I'm glad you found working on the design releasing - I'm finding that designing these characters is an incredible stress reliever, haha.
- The main character's design is a little bit boring I guess... the game actually started out being called "Real American Gunslingers". The bad guys were going to be terrorists, and the entire game was going to be in Janglish - sort of a spoof/tribute to the games I grew up on. While it was kicking around in my head it morphed into what it is now, but the stereotyped space commando guy never really evolved I guess. I hoped that giving him a huge sword would help him stand out a little ;^)
- I pretty much never draw platform sprites that are directly from the side. I just find them incredibly boring to sprite, and very flat and 2-dimensinoal-looking when they're finished. I've seen some people who can make them work, I'm just not one of them.
Again thanks for your comments everyone. I'll post another version soon with what I've learned from you guys!