I've been working on a sequel to Nova the Squirrel 1 since April. I've been mostly detailing progress at
http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=19067 and elsewhere but figured people might be interested in hearing about it here. I have a (slightly old) build people can play around with
here if anyone wants to, and the code is over on
GitHub as always.
Gameplay's intended to be mostly the same, with Mario-style platforming and Kirby-style copy abilities. There'll probably be a smaller amount of emphasis on puzzle platforming this time, at least for mandatory stuff. There's also an (in my opinion) much bettery story I'm figuring out, using almost entirely my own characters this time.
I'm trying to put a lot of emphasis on cute and smooth animations, like the attack doing a cute little twirl, or being able to roll down hills.
It's going to have a mode 7 section that's more puzzley, that takes a strong hint from Sonic 3's Blue Sphere minigame.