Miyamoto once shot down a “Walupeach” character
Posted on January 17, 2023 by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News
A 2008 Nintendo Dream interview is making the rounds due some information that it contains regarding what could have been another character known as Walupeach. Twitter user gosokkyu shared some translation tidbits.
The discussion is with Shugo Takahashi, a co-founder of Camelot. Given how Nintendo was open to good ideas, it turns out that a pitch was made for Walupeach who would have been included in their next game. However, Mario creator vetoed the idea before they could even show him their design. Apparently Miyamoto felt that it would end up like Doronjo.
Shugo did tell Nintendo Dream that the design for the character wasn’t inspired by Doronjo and didn’t actually look like her. Walupeach was a datenshi-style character (like a fallen angel / demon), however.
At this point many of you are probably wondering who Doronjo is. She’s the leader of the Doronbo Gang in Yatterman, an anime series that aired in Japan. You can check out her design below.
Other than Walupeach, Nintendo Dream also published another 2008 interview with Hiroji Kiyotake on the origins of Wario. One detail mentioned there is how while Super Mario Land 2 was being developed, Wario was never sent to Miyamoto for review, and he was never shown any part of the game other than Mario. Kiyotake seemed to be a little disappointed that Wario has become so “on-model”. In other words, he considers the character to be looser and open to different interpretations regarding aspects like proportions and art style. Kiyotake doesn’t believe that Wario needs to be so bound to a set standard.
