Weapon Sprites

For platformers, would the character have their own sprite/playerbox, and the weapons seperate?

Example, If the platform was similar to contra/metal slug/ megaman, would their weapons have their own sprite/box?

Example 2, If the platform game also included different weapons,such as swords/axes/blunt tools, would those have their own sprites/boxes as well?

Thanks

It all depends, you can do it either way.

Metal Slug and Megaman use only a player sprite, no weapon sprite.

For example 2, I would do a "paperdoll" system where I pin a sprite over the character.

Thanks Rory,

Can you elaborate what a paperdoll system is? So far for a shooting game I just made the character spawn a bullet.

You can check my tutorial here:http://www.scirra.com/tutorials/355/making-character-composed-of-multiple-parts

and it also will help you in future: http://www.scirra.com/tutorials/361/understanding-uid-iid-health-of-enemies-and-rocket-smoke-trail

TELLES0808 - can you reupload this capx from this tutorial? I would like to see how it works.