Metal slug type sprite

[125four]

Hi, new guy here. I'm trying to make this shockwave game, a sidescrolling shooter, and here's what I got for the player's sprite.


I'd like to get some C&C before I animate it, thanks.
P.S. The gun is straight out of Metal Slug, I have it there as a place holder for now.

[ejay]

Looks cool.  I think the wrist needs to be more defined, and the hand could be slightly larger. Also, the ear should probably be a bit higher on the head, and the eye lower. Don't be afraid to put light shades right next to your outlines, it seems like you're overdoing the antialiasing in some places (the legs, for example) making it appear a bit mushy and lacking form.
good job, I'd love to see it animated.

[Slayer of Kings]

Alright, I'm no pro at spriting, but I have studied Metal Slug sprites for a while now. The ones you've made are pretty good, but here are some tips. Make the body more smaller, cartoonish. It looks nice, but it also looks to realistic. Also, use less antialiasing. Metal Slug hardly ever used antialiasing, sometimes a bit of dithering yes, but rarely antialiasing. Also, each color set like skin, hair, shirt, etc. was limited to four colors. The lightest shade where the light hit, the normal color, a darker shade, and an much darker shade for details or very dark areas. Hope this helps, and so far your doing a good job.

[125four]

ejay:
I tried what you said about lighter shades near the outlines and I think it is much better, thanks. Also fixed the wrist and tinted some of the shades.

Slayer of Kings:
I'm not really tring to copy the MS style, just doing a similar sprite, but thanks for the crits. Reduced the AA, here's old and new.

[Crazy Asian Gamer]

Being that it's in a game, it'll probably be good in lighter colors, which you've done quite well.
The back of the head seems a little off. It might be my lack of knowledge in anatomy, but I think the top of the head could benefit from one more pixel in the outline.
The backpack looks fine right now, though in it's more recent version, I question how it will do against a dark background (noting the gray pixel in the top right corner of it).
Umm... yeah, that's all I have to say. Nice work.