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Shigeru Miyamoto once rejected evil 'Walupeach' design for Princess Peach

Miyamoto said no to the idea of an evil Wario-style version of Princess Peach without ever having seen the design.

Morgan Shaver

January 18, 2023 9:25 AM

MalteserRefs

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Social media has recently taken an interest in a fascinating tidbit from a 15-year-old interview with Shugo Takahashi, co-founder of the studio Camelot. On Twitter, user gosokkyu pointed out that Takahashi mentions in the interview that Camelot had once designed an evil Wario-style version of Princess Peach known as “Walupeach” and even brought the idea to Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto.

buoyed by the OK & the knowledge that Nintendo was open to good ideas, they tried to pitch "Walupeach" for their next game, but apparently Miyamoto vetoed it before they could even show him their design, on the lines that "I know it's gonna be just like Doronjo, so don't bother"

— GSK | https://cohost.org/gosokkyu (@gosokkyu) January 17, 2023

At the time, the idea to create Walupeach stemmed from the fact that Camelot had seen a modicum of success with other evil spin-off characters like Waluigi (an evil version of Luigi) in games like Mario Tennis for Nintendo 64. Unfortunately, Camelot’s pitch was swiftly rejected by Miyamoto despite the fact that he never actually saw a visual of what the design for Walupeach might look like.

Instead, Miyamoto supposedly remarked on how he didn’t need to see the Walupeach design because it’d be “just like Doronjo, so don’t bother.” More specifically, Miyamoto is referencing the character Doronjo from the anime series Yatterman which can be seen in the images below.

Screenshots of Doronjo from Yatterman.
Album https://t.co/2SM0WnH18X pic.twitter.com/mm0QurreQO

— Reference Emporium (@MalteserRefs) July 19, 2021

While this might be how Miyamoto himself pictured Walupeach, Takahashi asserts that his design didn’t look like Doronjo at all but was more along the lines of a “datenshi-style” which would be more representative of a fallen angel or demon type character. Given that the design was rejected, we don’t know exactly what Takahashi’s Walupeach looked like outside of the “datenshi-style” description.

Of course, the internet is full of talented artists who may latch onto the idea of Walupeach and create their own versions. Perhaps, with people showing a renewed interest in Walupeach, Nintendo may revisit the idea. Until then, it’s interesting to learn about what might have been thanks to the interview with Camelot’s Shugo Takahashi.

For more Nintendo news, take a moment to read through some of our previous coverage as well including the recent Splatoon 3 Version 2.1.0 patch notes which include special weapon gauge adjustments, and how Saudi Arabia recently increased its stake in Nintendo (NTDOY) to 6 percent.

Morgan Shaver

Senior Editor

Morgan is a writer from the frozen wastelands of Maine who enjoys metal music, kpop, horror, and indie games. They're also a Tetris fanatic who's fiercely competitive in games like Tetris 99... and all games in general. But mostly Tetris. You can follow Morgan on Twitter @Author_MShaver.