I'm feeling pretty good today. I feel like I'm getting close to finishing this project with a good output overall, and the review by Fallen-Griever was simply awesome.
I've been doing a bit of some spriting and other work to improve the game. Take a look at this:

Meet Peacheek. In some Eastern countries, the peach is a symbol of fertility. In the universe of Tina of the Stars, it gives you extra lives! The item randomly appears upon destroying a monster, but only if you are low on your lives (max number of chances in this game is 4).

Also...

I decided to add a neat feature to help vary the scoring of this game. At the end of each level, the number of coins you collected (from defeated monsters) and the time remaining are calculated, giving you bonus points.

I'm in the process of replacing some of the music in this game as well, since I don't want to break the copyright laws too much. I plan on getting a new demo out by the 23rd, hopefully earlier, so that I can get something new out before I go back to school. Ciao