wow! this is impressive. really well done. fantastic art and music! i love the opening cutscene. we wanted to do something exactly like that, but didn't devote enough time to the game. you really nailed the NES feel for the game, and i love the addition of pressing the power button to start.
some minor subjective critique: i would have liked the jump to have slightly more hang time. it was pretty tricky for me to be able to kill some of the enemies on small ledges at eye-level (those guys that throw knives) because you fall so quickly. also i didn't see a point to crouching when it's not really useful to dodge attacks. generally when there's crouching in a game, i expect some enemies to have projectiles that would go over you when crouching. though i only got to the guys with the shields that throw spears, so maybe it's more useful for later enemies? these are pretty minor issues though. extremely well done game!