Thread:Krazy and Ignatz Fan/@comment-4241330-20150429233512

Take a look at Plunger. He may be based on Mario, but the only things similar are his color scheme and the fact that he's a plumber. He doesn't have a musache, travel through pipes, run around collecting mushrooms, save princesses or fight evil dragons.

The point is that you're still making your characters very similar in terms of personality and traits. Even if a character is based on another, you'll want to give as few similarities possible so it doesn't seem like a rip-off. 