The creator and designer behind Waluigi recently revealed some concept art regarding a rejected pitch for an evil version of Princess Peach from the Super Mario franchise. Nintendo's Mario and Luigi are usually accosted by their evil, greedy mirrors in various spin-off titles, Wario and Waluigi. Despite them mainly appearing in spin-offs instead of mainline Mario platformers, both of Mario's rival characters have a passionate fanbase. Waluigi, in particular, has become a beloved character in his own right.

During the development of Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64, Camelot had designed Waluigi as a complementary partner to Wario, since the game had a doubles mode and there weren't many characters that would be able to work with him. While reception to Waluigi was pretty cold at the time, he still ended up being brought onto the playable roster of other console spin-offs like Mario Party 3 and Mario Kart: Double Dash as Wario's partner. Before the release of Camelot's Mario Power Tennis on the GameCube, the developer wanted to pitch a Wario-like evil version of Princess Peach to fill out the roster, though this was rejected by Shigeru Miyamoto himself. Waluigi's creator, Fumihide Aoki, recently revealed the design of "WaPeach" for the first time.

Related

Wario and Waluigi Fan Art Imagines Mario and Luigi-Esque RPG Concept

One fan artist imagines what Wario and Waluigi would look like in an RPG setting in the same vein as the Mario and Luigi games.

The concept art of WaPeach was revealed in a since-deleted post on Aoki's Instagram account, with the images captured by Twitter user @SuperMarioOOC85. The character's design is drastically different from Wario, Waluigi, or even the character she's supposed to be the rival of, Peach. Her concept sketches show that she's much younger than Peach, indicated by her short stature and tiny princess crown. The concept sketches show that she would have used an ax, which likely would have been a part of her special moves in Mario Power Tennis. While the sketches showed her in black and white, Aoki also revealed that she had a 3D model as well, with her outfit being purple like Waluigi's, along with similar facial features and hair to the Mushroom Kingdom princess.

Back when Shigeru Miyamoto rejected the idea of an Evil Princess Peach, it was due to the design supposedly being too much like Doronjo, a femme fatale who was the leader of the Doronbo Gang from the Yatterman anime series. This pre-conception was likely based on how Wario and Waluigi took inspiration from the Doronbo Gang's pair of henchmen, Tonzura Sutakora and Boyacky Butsukusa. Evidently, Miyamoto's fears were a little bit unfounded. Instead of a femme fatale like Doronjo, WaPeach seems to have been designed like a rebellious teenager in order to contrast Princess Peach.

Once fans saw this design, many were sad that it never got off the ground, declaring it to be a "missed opportunity." Aoki shared the sentiment in the comments of his post, agreeing with some fans who believed they were "robbed" of a rival for Peach. Aoki also noted that had she been approved, the color of WaPeach's clothes likely would have been different, since Waluigi's clothes are already purple. Regardless, many are hoping that Nintendo might have a change of heart one day and this character can appear in a future Super Mario game.

Super Mario

Super Mario is one of the biggest names in gaming. The first game in the franchise was 1985's Super Mario Bros., a game that is credited with helping the gaming industry recover from its two-year crash that began in 1983.

The Super Mario series still has an important place in gaming today, largely thanks to Nintendo's ability to continuously innovate the platform games.