Gaia tries something different!

[Vipershark]

Sorry if this comes across as rude, but Sonic and Megaman are not "something different" for you.
I'm looking at your sprites and you're still using the same bad techniques as before.
The entire point of your challenge was to get you out of your comfort zone, which... you've fallen right back into.

Sprite something -entirely different- than Sonic or Megaman.
Something not mainstream, and that uses an entirely different spriting style.
Try making a custom sprite in the style of the DS game Lock's Quest. No robots! That means no spriting your ref.

That stuff in your first post (minus the megaman) is all different from what you normally do as well.
You should consider going back to that. (Actually, don't consider it, do it!!)