Well for one thing, the thing holding Reptile up, which I assume is supposed to be green magic spiraling around, looks too solid on the sides, like he's got a column of green stone up his ass.

Oh, well that's easy...

1 - Get rid of that background. Although well put together, that fuckin' big-assed eye takes my attention away from the fatality that's happening dead-center of the arena. Plus the sprites are way too small for the way you reconstructed Reptile's lair from MK4's skins. Either that or different parts were just not sized proportionately. If you MUST keep the damn background, I suggest a new angle of the arena where that eye isn't taking the attention away from all the action.

2 - I like how reptile is re-colored to look like his MK4 alternate costume; it's a nice touch, but for fuck's sake, you're beyond re-coloring. Make your own damn MK4 reptile sprite; HIS PRIMARY COSTUME.

3 - MKM:SZ sprites? Come on... I know you're not about to use a MKM:SZ ripped sprite in your fake. They look just as shitty as MKT sprites. There's a reason why most fakers don't use MKM:SZ sprites or at least try to make their own... Granted, it looks better than this, but still. At least do your own shit.

You already proved you can do a decent Fujin sprite. Get off your lazy ass and do your own Shinnok and Quan Chi; even if that means you simply improve upon the existing sprite with your own editing. I will help you with Quan Chi but not Shinnok.

Don't do what I did by creating concepts based off of MKM:SZ sprites because your fake will get nowhere. Also... don't pull an UltimateRyu and throw in a cut-and-paste job from a 3D game. I did that mistake when I first started out in fakes.

4 - Ditch those ugly-assed special effects from MKM:SZ or make your own... or just improve on them. That glowing effect you added to Quan Chi's special move looks stupid because the glow appears to be coming from BEHIND it rather than FROM it. Also, don't make Reptile's legs transparent because with the way the sprite is, that special move is knocking him up from his ass, and his legs are in front of the "plasma."

5 - I suggest you not make a multi-framed fake and just stick to one frame, make it your best frame, and have Reptile being killed. Honestly, the first frame is utterly useless in this fake. You could show Quan Chi raising Reptile while Shinnok throws his fireball (I'm sure a fallen elder god can manage to destroy Reptile without the aid of Quan Chi's silly plasma spew). So if you merge the first two as I just described, you'd only need a second from to display the aftermath. But like I said... you only need one frame unless you are so good at sprite editing already and want to do Shinnok and Quan Chi twice each. I think that's a bit much for you right now. I want to see one good frame from you.

Seeing as how you're looking for advice and/or suggestions, I won't criticize the progress that you've made. Before I continue, I must forewarn you that there isn't much advice to aid in the completion of this particular image. I'm merely offering a different concept that, for the most part, should help you get away from from this recurring theme of MK4 arena reproductions.

What I suggest is that you challenge yourself a bit and try to recreate a 2D version of Reptile's Lair from MK: Armageddon (click here for the concept art). Given your current skill set, specifically regarding what you're capable of doing with backgrounds, I think that reproducing this arena in 2D form would suffice as a suitable challenge. If you run into any problems, just post the image and specify exactly what it is with which you're having trouble. I and others will do our best to offer advice on how to overcome those obstacles.

I'm aware that taking on the aforementioned task would compel you to scrap your current background. With that in mind, I suggest that you allow blacksaibot to post in your background directory in his fake picture database so that it doesn't go to waste. I'm impressed with the crisp and clean quality of this reproduction, but I, personally, have grown weary of seeing MK4's textures being used and abused to such a degree that it's become redundant.

Now, as for the sprites, I'm not particularly fond of the copying and pasting approach that you've implemented with Shinnok and Quan Chi. You and I both know that you surpassed the level of exploiting such an elementary technique. I would have preferred that you at least made an attempt to recreate your own 2D adaptation of each sprite and allowed critics to offer whatever advice/criticism that they could to aid you in perfecting proper sprite design. I've seen what you're able to accomplish with previous sprite edits, and I don't doubt that you're capable of improving in a much greater capacity now that you've tried your hand in that area of fake picture production.

This series of suggested tasks may appear daunting at first, but I wouldn't suggest them if I didn't have complete faith in your steadily improving abilities. If you hit a wall and feel like you're incapable of putting out a respectable product, then contact me and/or blacksaibot and I/we will help to restore your confidence.

Edit: I realize that there isn't any actual information that would be beneficial to the image in its current state, but there's not a whole heck of a lot that I can add that hasn't already been said, which is rare. What I can say is that the special effects that you used to depict how Reptile is being suspended should have quite a bit of transparency. With the background you're using, I can see how transparency could cause the effects to blend in and become practically indiscernible, but that's where the idea of creating MK: Armageddon's version of Reptile's Lair comes into play.

Oooooh NICE suggestion! I would love for you to go through with this, saiZero.

BS, you forgot this one. This is when you were showing me anything 3D can easily be translated to 2D. Knocks the hell out of my crappy BG attempt .