An evil version of Princess Peach in the vein of Wario and Waluigi, pitched by long-time Nintendo developer Camelot, was rejected by Shigeru Miyamoto after the success of Waluigi. Nintendo has been hesitant to add more new characters to the Mario universe, or even modifications to existing characters in recent years, according to a 2017 interview with Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe. The rejection of an evil Peach character suggests Nintendo’s close guarding of its characters might have been lingering around Nintendo’s offices for much longer.Camelot is a game developer that was founded in 1990. Camelot worked on 12 games in the Shining series for various Sega consoles before signing on to develop the original Mario Golf for the Nintendo 64. To this day Camelot is still one of Nintendo’s go-to developers for Mario-related sports games, having also developed several Mario Tennis titles. Camelot's most recent release was 2021’s Mario Golf: Super Rush.Wario was created for Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, released on the original Game Boy in 1992. Wario’s success led to Camelot developing Waluigi some years later for Mario Tennis, originally released on the Nintendo 64. The character was an instant hit. Camelot co-founder Shugo Takahashi tried to capitalize on Waluigi’s success by pitching Miyamoto on another alt-version of a different core Mario universe character: Princess Peach.
The evil Peach idea was shot down by Miyamoto for two reasons, according to Twitter user @gosokkyu, who uncovered the interview with Takahashi from 2008. The first was that he believed the character design would not ultimately be cute enough. Secondly, according to Takahashi, Miyamoto said that any character design Camelot came up with would ultimately end up looking too much like Doronjo, a female character from the popular Yatterman anime series. It’s unclear whether Miyamoto ever actually saw a design for an evil Peach. Takahashi fought back by adding that the design bared little resemblance to Doronjo, but that it was inspired by dark fallen angel-style characters commonly found in anime and manga. This must’ve been too close to Doronjo for Miyamoto’s liking, so he shot it down.
This is another game industry “What If?” story that could have changed the course of studios or franchises had events unfolded differently. In a different timeline, Kratos isn’t in 2018’s God of War reboot/sequel. In another world, Nintendo would have released the PageBoy, a planned accessory for the Game Boy Color that would’ve granted the classic handheld console the ability to use the internet, send email, and even livestream way back in 1999 had it not been canceled. Evil Princess Peach is an idea that may one day see the light of day, but for now, she’s just another example of what could’ve been.
Source: Eurogamer