Mors' Sprites

[Pik]

I'm gonna stick by Shade on this one. It shows more competence on the creator's part if they did research, and someone with a good eye would be able to catch onto it. You're right, most uninformed people would think that Kotaku article has "8-bit sprites" on it, but that's not a good thing. They'd also call some SNES games 8-bit, or any 2d pixel art for that matter. Their opinions shouldn't effect us as pixel artists.
That Kotaku article is a GROSS representation of sprite history, the NES, or any retro pixel art in general.

Authenticity is something that only pixel artists and game developers care about, not the people who will be playing the game.

OK, guess which ones we are, wiseguy?

HOWEVER,
You bring up a good point with sprite layering. It would still be "authentic" yet provide him with more artistic liberties.