Also 
Somebody Battletoads? pshaw, in my day we had someone's older brother's copy of Citadel on the BBC Micro and we were happy dammit
Well, I am in Eastern Europe so all the cool stuff from "abroad" used to come over about 10 years late. When you guys were starting to get bored with SNES and Genesis cheap NES knockoffs were still king here
Do you guys have any suggestions or ideas on how I could make the gameplay more interesting? I was kinda hoping I could get away with a no-violence game though xP, But I'm 100% sure there must a thousand ways I could improve what I have here
As lolpaca mentioned - new abilities are neat - even if it's a little stronger magnet to make collecting those orbs easier. Also, perhaps I just didn't play long enough but not enough mining was seen - perhaps have some part of scenery that can be mined - something could give it away, like slight shimmer of light from the orbs inside or such.
I can appreciate a non-violent game idea, but cannot really enjoy it (heh). BUT - you could make that optional - make branching paths within a level where in one path is slow and steady mining, but in the other - space pirates and combat - both give you about the same rewards, but with different gameplay. And once you pick a path the other gets locked out (maybe add a secret way fro smart players to get both).
There's room for all sorts of upgrades, like a radar (shows goodies/enemies on map or on screen), better mining equipment, better weapons, etc.