Wonderful style, execution and colors
Now, my only humble remarks...
One thing that strikes me as odd - besides the nose VS chin perspective as noted by Dan - is the rightmost "branch" of the squirt, which does not follow the vertical surface of the chin.
And the body feels a bit too flat - maybe just some minor highlights would help.

saimo

remove that frame and it loses the impact...

Well, I had actually done it before posting just to make sure it was not only an abstract idea.
What can I say... I like it better without, both because I do not like perceiving the undefined black shape and because the explosion is more sudden, brutal... but, as said, it's a personal thing.
Of course, on a very bright background things would be different.

saimo

Well, I'm not actively into pixelling - I mean, I'm not a pixeller - but still it's the computer graphics form I prefer. The first time I saw a computer game (you know, Intellivision, VIC 20, C=64, etc.), seeing those pixels really fired up my imagination (which cannot happen anymore with today's hyper-realistic games). That got me into computing, where pixelling is second to just coding

The very first time I pixelled something was for some C=64 proggie I wanted to do... but it was not real pixelling, as graphics were "pushed" by means of numbers in code.
The next step was taking a cassette case + inlay and sticking to the inlay a 24x21 grid (that's the size of C=64 sprites, BTW) so that I could draw on the transparent case surface with a felt-tip pen and wipe what I did not like/want with a cloth.
And - oh, boy! - I still have that stuff!!!
Here it comes for your delight - please excuse the low quality of the picture:



(you may notice the powers of two at the bottom: those helped me with calculating the binary values to put into the code)

After that, I wrote my own paint program... and actually managed to even draw an animation of a little man dribbling & dunking a ball to a basket (I've been a basketball addict forever). Of course, I still have the tapes... what a pity I don't have a C=64 anymore (and, anyway, I doubt those tapes are still of any use).

Then I left the C=64 for the Amiga, where I started pixelling (again for a gamey of mine) with a tool that makes MS Paint look like the perfect solution for any graphician's wildest dreams: however, back then, it looked to me as a wonderful application... I'm talking about the Object Editor that came with AMOS Professional - a few may be shivering now.

Much later I discovered real paint programs: Deluxe Paint (by Electronic Arts) and Personal Paint (by Cloanto)... and, guess what?!? I use Personal Paint still today!

Well, I went way OT, so I'll stop it here.
saimo

P.S. this post is a bit hurried... I hope it turns out to be readable.

It's pretty interesting to see that a game would have to do so many tricks, just to squeeze in transparencies (I think that's what they were talking about).

I feel sorry for the poor bastards that had to brainstorm the process by which they'd create a game with such constraints. It was after the time when games were relatively simple and before the time games were relatively simple to make.

Don't be: it was tough, but also very creative and stimulating. Nowadays there are other problems... but I prefer the oldskool ones
BTW: actually on low-power platforms there are still those kind of challenges...

saimo

.. It's a different effect.

Technically, yes. As for the results... at this point, I wonder (again) if whether we're talking about the same thing

If at all possible, in such a situation I would want to make use of as many of the 16 extra colors as i can, rather than using them for a fixed-color transparency effect.

Well, yes, of course that's a matter of choices... solid (like the BB did in TCE) or dithered shadows and more colors to play with, or "proper" shadows and half the colors. IMHO when the pixeller is a master, colors can be sacrificed for the added beauty of the effects that can be achieved - well, better shadows are definitely not a major gain, but double playfields/parallaxes/etc. can be

saimo