All of these would have looked like dumb fanmade edits if you showed this to people before their actual reveal and you would have gotten laughed at as an amateur fake leaker and/or wishful Nintendo fanboy.

Don't forget they made a game in the 80s where you play as a plumber who eats mushrooms and flowers, punches blocks to get coins, and saves a princess from a fire-breathing turtle. And yet, the plumber became the most iconic character since Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny.