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Waluigi, you know him, you love him, you might be in love with him, who knows? The gangly menace was first designed by Fumihide Aoki for 1999’s Mario Tennis on the N64, to act as the Luigi to Wario’s Mario, as it were. In the years since, fans across the globe have been wondering if there were more “Wa” counterparts to the Mario characters we know and love, and today it seems we’ve gotten our first look at the long-rumored “Walpeach.”
Sketches of Walpeach were first shared early this morning on Instagram by an account by the name of yuzumpo, which has zero information available about who the account actually belongs to. The account itself has plenty of concept art from Golden Sun and the Shining Force series, including a previously unseen summon animation from Golden Sun, which the account claims would have been called Artemis. This concept art all points to the account belonging to the father of Waluigi, Fumihide Aoki himself, who also worked as a graphic designer on both the Golden Sun and Shining Force series.
With a little digging, it seems that the account does, in fact, belong to Fumihide Aoki, confirmed by a screenshot of an Instagram story shared by the private account of Masanori Sato, a former Nintendo promotional artist who worked alongside Aoki on Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Aoki also shared images of a 3D model for Walpeach, who Aoki designed for Mario Power Tennis on the GameCube, rather than for the N64’s Mario Tennis, according to comments he made on the original sketches.
Waluigi’s creator shows off 'Walpeach' for the first time
Waluigi, you know him, you love him, you might be in love with him, who knows? The gangly menace was first designed by Fumihide Aoki for 1999’s Mario Tennis
nintendowire.com
