Suggestions for art style in my game

Hi. I'm working on a Flash game, and I am trying to figure out a good visual style for it. Right now it is very simple, which is good, but I wonder if it could be improved. Here is a screenshot of the game in action:

http://usera.imagecave.com/axcho/impact.gif

It demonstrates everything in the game so far: two ragdolls with blue and red braids, two numeric health displays, and a colored circle to represent an impact. The impact circle is bigger depending on the force, and fades to white in a third of a second. A blue circle means that the blue player was damaged, and similarly for a red circle.

I have been basing the color scheme on the Arms animation, which is fine but I think it could be better adapted for my game. Here is an example of an animation which is also very minimalistic, but I think has a nicer style by the way it uses color and sound.

I am also wondering about alternatives to the numbers representing health. I had originally made the braids fade with damage, but that got annoying and it was hard to tell who was ahead. I could put health bars up at the top instead, for example. And there are of course more unique solutions, like changing the background color or something. Let me know what you think.

I would really appreciate any advice or suggestions you could give me on how to make the style better. I want this to be the best game that it can be! Thanks! :D

Okay, some new screens! I've been experimenting with a few styles, which I'll probably release separately as variations of the main game.

Here's the first one, CORONA:
http://usera.imagecave.com/axcho/corona.gif
It is based on the thick stick figure style favored in many stick figure animations. The braids are also longer, as requested.

And here's the other, GLOW:
http://usera.imagecave.com/axcho/glow.gif
This one is based on the digital painting .pointzero. on deviantART. It has medium-thickness stick figures, with motion blur. I'm thinking of adding little firefly things that float around in the background.

Any comments? I'm pretty proud of these; they look a lot nicer. I've also added bullet time for when you score a hit, so it's pretty cool. :)

Lookin' good. :)

Thanks. :)

Any more comments or criticisms?

hey sup man it is looking gd ah :thumbsup: ,keep up the good work and keep adding and making this game beter lol in no time youll get credit for what ya did lol :smoov:

thanks alot
Ricky