I'm very happy to see this. Seeing the subject title was an eureka-moment: of course! there should be a re-sprite mod made by proficient pixel artists!

I kind of like the original art and look, though. It's ugly, yes, but it looks like an earnest attempt by an actual human. The style is consistent and clean, and doesn't look completely modelled off other game art (unlike, say, Terraria).

Anyway, this project should give the game some extra mileage. I'll try it out at my nearest convenience!

Wow, that's super funny that I never even thought to look at the old box arts let alone find that the NES box art had the same concept! (I only owned the GB & SNES titles) Though it makes me feel so much less original now...:\

What an amazing coincidence I think I've had similar happen to me, too, once or twice.

I've had a lot of mixed reviews about the composition of the background, initially it was more empty and I had some people say it looked too empty, haha!

Well, to me it's mainly that it's so imbalanced. I get that the right side is emptier, 'cause it's getting eaten and all. But it looks as though it was already a pretty empty area before getting sucked in. All the while, the left side has land, creatures, stars and clouds, all pushed up against the edge of the canvas. Anything stopping you from adding more width to the image?

I thought some kind of stone idol could be cool to have, and so spent the evening making this:



It's not complete, but I'm done with it for this evening. Thought I'd share in case someone else might feel like picking up on improving it anyway.

Ideas for possible improvements:
Better ears! Using som reference/experience to make them look more like ears actually look.
Trade the stone eyeballs for active torches or similar. It would look really cool with some smooth fire animation and active lighting effects.
Add decorative details to forehead, and/or elsewhere.
Stack it with other idols, or add a "body".
General refinement, use more vivid/interesting colours, etc.

I'll try and make these improvements myself eventually, but if anyone wants to take a crack at it right away, please go ahead!

The zoom-in doesn't alter the original image file (at least I don't think that's likely). However, a blurrying filter is applied when using it in Chrome.

It's working alright now, anyway. As for the hydrant, I think it's suffering from extensive banding. The resulting shape is confusing and amorphous. Clarity is super important in pixel art, especially for such small sprites.

Take a good look at this thread. Parkerbaby's edit cleans it up a lot.