Nintendo characters, for the most part, have simple designs, but their characteristics and legacies from their respective games make us go crazy over them. They are very common whenever we go to conventions and Halloween parties. At least one person who is not a gamer can still tell who a Nintendo character is by either playing a game or see advertisements on TV. With the internet becoming accessible nearly everywhere, they might stumble across some fantastic fan art for these timeless characters.

Nintendo knows how to capture our hearts with keeping the characters the same when it comes to their design in the main series games, but a lot of fans are creative enough to revise the characters in their own unique and beautiful ways. Don’t want Princess Peach to become a damsel-in-distress? Make her a brave and powerful ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom! How about recreating an adorable Pokémon like Pikachu? Make the iconic mascot spooky yet awesome. Anything you can think of might have been created by an artist!

This list will give these artists credit and needed attention for reimagining our beloved Nintendo characters, whether they are in a completely different art style like realism or turn the characters into something that is completely different from the public eye. The variety of the fan art is huge, and it is wonderful how we are able to see great fan art from unknown to famous artists.

Let’s take a look at these twenty-five pieces of fan art for Nintendo characters reimagined by talented artists!

25 Mosiac Genius

via: retronerdstudios.deviantart.com

Pikmin is strange series about an alien named Olimar who can use the Pikmin for their abilities to help gain lost spaceship parts in thirty days. It has two sequels, with the third game receiving critical acclaim. Sita Navas’ fantastic artwork belongs in her series where she has other Super Smash Bros. characters drawn in Mayan art form. There are a lot more where this fan art came from, so be sure to check out her other works in this style!

24 Out Of This World

via: pauline_mauny.artstation.com

Just looking at this panther from Animal Crossing screams mystical and cosmic. Katrina has the perfect occupation for her aesthetic, that being a fortune teller. Pauline Mauny Simonnet’s depiction of this character resembles greatly of her performing a fortune in Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

It just makes you want to get your fortune.

There are a lot of good and bad things that can happen in the games regarding the fortunes, so be sure to bring some luck so you can be blessed!

23 The Long Journey

via: kevinbolk.deviantart.com

So is this what happens when Ash finally ages? Jokes aside, this fan art is breathtaking, and it gives us a lot of ideas of what this trainer went through since he looks wise beyond his years. The artist is Kevin Bolk and the theme he put into this artwork is surely spectacular.

The idea around this fan art might have been inspired by AZ from Pokémon X and Y due to the similarities in appearance, but this could be any of the male protagonists from the games.

22 Facing The Koopa King

via: joshuadunlop.deviantart.com

Do you ever look at someone’s artwork and ask yourself: How long did this take them to finish this? Joshua Dunlop’s art style is insanely realistic and the details are on point. Looking at his version of Bowser is jaw-dropping and magnificent. 3D art must take up a lot of time to complete, but Joshua gave the internet an amazing piece of art. A little fun fact: he is also famous for his realistic depictions of Pokémon, so this version of Bowser is just the cherry on top!

21 Hyrulian Sea Adventures

via: danwarrenart.blogspot.com

The Legend of Zelda has a lot of beloved fans who love the lore and characters this incredible franchise has to offer thanks to the mastermind of Shigeru Miyamoto. Thanks to him, we would be given the chance to see fantastic fan art for this series. Dan Warren created this with Wind Waker being his inspiration!

It must have taken weeks to finish this!

Seeing the characters look older fits the theme for this painting and we offer Dan praise for this amazing artwork.

20 Outstanding Bounty Hunter

via: facebook.com/danielmchazezart

Nintendo has given us some memorable female characters, whether it is the damsel-in-distress Princess Peach or the brave and strong Samus Aran. This lady did not have a happy childhood due being orphaned at a young age due to her parents getting offed by space pirates, especially Ridley.

Daniel M Chavez does a great job in drawing Samus in his art style. The atmosphere is dripping with uncertainty, but the galactic bounty hunter still has a calm and courageous expression on her face.

19 Double Dash Fun

via: tycony23.deviantart.com

Mario Kart Double Dash is a nice entry to the Mario Kart series which uses the concept of two characters teaming up together to race through each fun (and salt inducing) courses. Tycony23, also known as Nathan Russell, depicts the Mario characters in a more realistic style racing on Rainbow Road.

The characters look fierce and aggressive compared to their cartoonish and family-friendly appearance. The race looks like it is more serious than what is seems to be. Who do you think would win this race?

18 Scaly Fight

via: drmaniacal.deviantart.com

We can thank the amazing series Super Smash Bros. for giving us a fighting game where Nintendo characters can duke it out and answer the question of who would win in a fight. Here we have Bowser and Charizard fighting created by the artist DrManiacal, also known as Christopher Moschler.

The textures on both characters are extraordinary and realistic.

It makes sense for them to fight due to both characters being able to breathe fire. It looks like a fun matchup, so who do you think would win in this fight?

17 Super Smash Kart

via: edtropolis.deviantart.com

Now this is a unique concept for Nintendo fan art! It is like a what-if scenario where Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. combine together to make a crazy franchise. While there is one character who is definitely not from Nintendo, which is Amy Wong from Futurama, Mewtwo, Yoshi, and a Koopa Troopa look like they’re having the time of their lives. Edtropolis has certainly created a funny mashup that is done excellently. Who knows how he got this idea?

16 Going Dark

via: guarapito.lupous.net

EarthBound is a JRPG where we got to know about Ness thanks to Super Smash Bros. The game is a lot of fun for those looking for a great time with the great characters and interesting gameplay.

Jorge Aguirre decided to reimagine the EarthBound characters in a Gothic atmosphere, and honestly, they look cool. It would be cool if EarthBound were to get another game (or rerelease with additional content), having different costumes like these four can bring a lot of variety and fun.

15 Epic Matchup

via: artnerdx.deviantart.com

Fighting a video game boss can get players pumped up to show how much they have learned. Whether they give us frustration or encouragement, bosses are memorable parts in video games. Wario first appeared as a villain in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and he looked huge seeing him for the first time, so the artist artnerdx, or Olaloye Bolaji, made this picture with the idea in mind. Ever since his debut, Wario would later get his own games and be the eternal rival of Mario.

14 War Is Inevitable

via: weasyl.com/~kaji

Star Fox has been a Nintendo franchise for twenty-five years and it is one of the best science fiction video games ever. The fact that the canceled sequel, Star Fox 2, finally came back on the Super NES Classic Edition in 2017 shows that this series is still doing well.

This art in the style of realism is done beautifully by Kaji from Weasyl.

The fact that he never played a Star Fox game but was intrigued to make this art piece is true dedication to his work.

13 All Grown Up

via: sakimichan.deviantart.com

Sakimichan has to be the queen of fan art, no questions asked. She has been drawing for a long time and what better way to show off talent than to make art for childhood video games or cartoons! Misty looks all grown up and the attention to detail from Misty, her Pokémon, and the scenery is just gorgeous.

The three look like they are getting ready for a selfie, especially Azumarill. Seeing Misty and her Pokémon just makes us really happy since a lot of us grew up watching her in the show.

12 Gem Punch!

via: reddit.com/user/bignastyshrek

Crossover fan art can bring some interesting concepts and make fans either laugh or react in awe. Here is Captain Falcon in the style of Steven Universe’s art. In a way, it makes sense for Captain Falcon to have the body structure of Garnet since they both wear helmets, but the cherry on top is the pose. You can hear Captain Falcon say, “Show me your moves” and it would make you pumped up. DocWario did a nice job in combing F-Zero and Steven Universe with this picture.

11 Battle Of A Lifetime

via: ineonbeati.deviantart.com

One of the biggest plot twists in Pokémon was the fact that in Gold & Silver, the player would eventually face against the protagonist from the first generation games, acting as the true final boss. We wondered why Red did not reprise his role as champion, but seeing him on Mt. Silver answered our questions.

INeonBeatI makes Gold and Red look ultimately wicked and the anime-inspired art style adds some epicness. Additional points for the artist making Charizard and Typhlosion shiny.

10 Not So Shy Anymore

via: spoonfishlee.artstation.com

Didn’t expect Shy Guy to not… be shy? Neither did we. Kevin “Spoonfish Lee” Broberg created this artwork by making Shy Guy a renegade with a miniature version of Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud Strife’s Buster Sword. If we have one complaint, it would be that we wished we could see what Shy Guy looks like under that mask.

Imagine how fearsome he could be.

Since a bandage is covering his right eye, it makes us wonder how he lost his eye. Or maybe it could be just for being cool looking.

9 Fur-tastic

via: zombie-graves.deviantart.com

Zombie-Graves made this fantastic artwork of Fox McCloud and his companions. Just looking at Fox’s fur just seems so real, and yet Falco, Peppy, and Slippy look very identical to their original appearances. The background in this painting is handled with care and has a lot of detail. The artist could have just done a simple background with small stars, but he added in a planet with so much detail. This just makes us want to play some Star Fox now.

8 Don't Mess With The DK

via: wyvernsmasher.deviantart.com

Donkey Kong started off incredibly strong with the game literally introducing Nintendo’s mascot Mario and then branch off into its own series. In the 90’s, the games would be under the care of the fantastic development team Rare. Even though Rare would later be bought by Microsoft, Donkey Kong still have great titles under its name.

Wyvernsmasher created this artwork due to his excitement for Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate coming out. DK versus the Rajang King is one heck of an interesting fight to be witnessed.

7 Magical Princess

via: virgiliart.deviantart.com

There were only a few times where Peach did not become a damsel-in-distress, whether it is her main game Super Princess Peach or being a playable character in Super Smash Bros. VirgiliArt, also known as Salvatore Virgilio, created the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom as a mage.

Her design is gorgeous and fits with the fantasy theme greatly. Judging by the mushroom, she could be able to use magic of some sort. Perhaps she can instantly bring up any mushroom to strength her or anyone’s power.

6 Crossover Fun

via: vkliza.deviantart.com

Now here is a weird, but intriguing artwork made by VKliza on deviantART. A crossover is one thing, but the idea behind this fan art makes sense since Fire Emblem Awakening was going to be set in the future with the setting taking place on Mars.

So why not combine Fire Emblem with Star Wars?

The characters fit their roles respectively and it can be funny seeing them reenact scenes or lines from the Star Wars franchise. Chrom with a lightsaber is very reckless indeed.