Waluigi and Peach
Image: Nintendo Life

Waluigi has grown to become one of the most popular characters in the Mario series — one circuit on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe online confirms as much — but did you know that there was once a design for another evil "Wa" inversion in the franchise, this time focused on Peach?

The prospect of "Walupeach" had never entered the gaming sphere (though we had seen the concept in previous interviews and other sources like the manga), but a recently republished interview with the vice president of Camelot Software Planning, Shugo Takahashi, has confirmed that such a character once reached the design phase.

The 2008 Nindori interview reappeared on Nintendo Dream Web and was brought to our attention by @gosokkyu who provided a translated summary of the contents. It seems that after seeing the success of Waluigi in Mario Tennis, the Camelot team set about trying to make lightning strike twice and began working on the designs for "Walupeach" — a 'fallen angel' take on the classic princess. If this concept sounds horrifying, that's because it probably was. Shigeru Miyamoto must have felt the same, as the legendary Nintendo director shot down the idea before even seeing the designs.

Concerned that the character would be too much like Doronjo (the iconic villain from the 1977 anime Yatterman), Miyamoto ensured that the designs would go no further and the "Walupeach" concept never saw the light of day.

You can find a picture of Doronjo below, just to make it clear how un-Mario such a character would be. Takahashi confirmed in the interview that their designs bore no resemblance to the anime villain (phew) though it was a "datenshi-style character" (think gothic-y fallen angel-looking and you're close enough) so may have carried a similar vibe even if the appearance wasn't there.

Doronjo
Image: Tatsunoko Productions / @MalteserRefs

But now this idea has come to mind, we can't help but wonder what the evil princess would have looked like. Would this have been a tall, moustached version of the Mushroom Kingdom figurehead? Or would the approach have been more rock and roll, depicting Peach in a leather jacket and (dare we say) trousers??

Whatever "Walupeach" might have looked like, it seems that the character will never come to fruition — probably a good thing, right? For now, at least, Waluigi remains everyone's favourite bad boy on the block.

Would you like to see a "Walupeach" equivalent in the future? Let us know what she would look like in the comments below!

[source ndw.jp, via twitter.com]