Miyamoto himself saved humanity from the threat of 'Walupeach'

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Thank you, Shigeru

Weach
(Image credit: Nintendo)

A Mario Tennis lead wanted to create a Waluigi-like nemesis for Princess Peach, but Shigeru Miyamoto personally shot the idea down.

Earlier this week, the Twitter user just below combed back through old interviews conducted by Japanese outlet Nindori in 2008. One of the interviews, with Mario Tennis lead Shugo Takahashi, reveals that the designer wanted to create "Walupeach" after conceptualizing Waluigi, but Miyamoto wasn't having any of it.

Miyamoto apparently vetoed the pitch for Walupeach based on the idea that it'd simply be another iteration of "Doronjo." We're left to assume the "Doronjo" Miyamoto is referring to here is Hiroko Sasagawa, a villainous antagonist of the popular Yatterman anime series. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when Miyamoto was pitched Walupeach.

However, apparently Takahashi refuted this idea, claiming that Walupeach wasn't based around Doronjo at all. It's a little uncertain whether Takahashi voiced this directly to Miyamoto, or just kept the thought to himself privately, but either way, nothing ever came of the concept.

Walupeach would've been pitched to Nintendo right after the creation of Waluigi. The antagonist was originally created as a nemesis for Luigi during the development of Mario Tennis for the N64, primarily because when designing the game, Nintendo realized Wario didn't have a tennis partner.

Over 20 years later, and Princess Peach is sadly still left without a nemesis. Still, considering Nintendo is dead set on her being repeatedly captured by Bowser until the end of time, perhaps it's for the best that Peach doesn't have another sworn enemy to worry about. 

Check out our upcoming Switch games guide for a look over all the titles set to come to Nintendo's current console in the near future. 

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer
Freelance Writer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.