Destructoid says Wired's Tracey John brought up the question (at the same roundtable at which Miyamoto was told Capt. Lou Albano had died.) Miyamoto's response, according to a transcript:

I thought it'd be nice to have her as a playable character, but the toad characters had a similar physique to a Mario character than Peach does. And if one of the four had a dress, we'd have to come up with a special programming to handle how the skirt is handled in the gameplay, and that's really the only reason why Peach isn't playable (laughs). Of course If we had Wario in there we'd have to program a way to make him fart. (laughs)

Here's another way to look at it - if Peach is playable, who are you going off to save?

Miyamoto on the New Mario [IGN: full transcript, the last question is the relevant one. Via Destructoid]

He was there, camera in-hand, to document the evening's festivities. And while these clips aren't as...long as we'd have liked, they still give you an idea of the flavour of the night. By showing Princess Peach. Baking cupcakes. And shaking her ass.

You can also check out Jonathan's blog below, which has some naughtier pics of the evening that are, we must warn you, not safe for work. Unless you work somewhere that's totally cool with you looking at pictures of Chun Li's tits. And if you do...well, you have a great job.

Video Game Girls and a whole lot of other stuff [Things to do in LA]

[agentscarlet @ deviantART]

Princess Peach's Castle: it's one of the Mushroom Kingdom's most prominent landmark immortalized in playing cards. Tipster Professor Hazard passes this along:

Check out this house of cards that Sasha Fiero over at Snipe Hunt Media made! It's Peach's Castle from Super Mario 64, complete with moat and a Queen of Hearts for the picture of Peach on the front. I thought this might be the kind of thing you guys would want to see.

Here's a nice weekend craft for all you olde shcool video game crafters. Lenore at Hacker Zen has made these awesome 8-bit Mario and Peach shirts using a few household sundries and acrylic fabric paint. The end result is really terrific and nothing wears better than something you made yourself. This way you won't be in danger of going to a party and finding three other people wearing that Pac-Man shirt you got from Target.

Lenore gives step by step instructions for you folks who are willing to put down the controller for a few hours and dedicate yourself to the project. But for god's sake DON'T USE PUFF PAINT. Flynn De Marco

Make a Video Game Pixel Art T-Shirt [Hacker Zen]

Familiar Nintendo faces become greedy, real-estate moguls along side some of the character of Square-Enix's Dragon Quest in Itadaki Street, a monopoly-like game from the DS coming out for the Japanese market in June.

Outside of regular Monopoly rules, players can also buy and sell stocks of an entire block of property (affecting their values), and there is also the option to level-up by collecting icons all over the board. Plus there are different boards like Castle of Torodaine, Death Volcano, Giant Demon's Statue and Yoshi's Island, so it's not like being in that Atlantic City Alcatraz for three hours waiting for some one to "JUST BUY BOARDWALK ALREADY SO WE CAN ALL GO HOME." Kim Phu

Meet the Characters of Itadaki Street DS [Siliconera]

Sometimes we wonder if in posting all this game-related graffiti, we are actually promoting vandalism. We wonder if the hooligans that race around painting things like this Princess Peach on a Willie Yahrio School Board elections poster just out Santa Cruz actually think, "Boy, I hope this gets on Kotaku." So, know, we do not condone spray painting video games characters and wish Willie Yahiro best of luck with his School Board elections, whoever the hell he is. Brian Ashcraft

Thanks, Nathan

Leggy Peach. Midgets in costume. Camel-toed mutant Mario. Bowser as a centaur. No, it's not Super Mario Bros. via Fellini or Pasolini, but might as well be. Reader Aaron found "unusual depiction" of the Mario universe at retro shop Game Tanteidan in Osaka's Den-Den Town. It's difficult to see what the print outs say, but they seem to track Mario's rise to fame and fortune. Strangeness abound sure, but what baffles me isn't why some Japanese store has tacked this up, but why Mario is driving Mario? Brian Ashcraft

Luigi's Suspiciously Flat Groin [Kotaku]

These cookie jars date from the Super Mario World era and not only store snacks, but also play music when opened. Finely crafted painted porcelain, Peach (above) and Toad (after the jump) were located on eBay. Mario and Luigi are still M.I.A., presumably wondering around Mushroom Kingdom, pouncing on Koopa cookies. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [SMBHQ] Thanks, Chilly!

Game tees? Sure. Shoes? No prob. But boxer-shorts? An eBay seller has these Nintendo drawers available for purchase at US $12.99. Eh, thanks, but no thanks. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Destructoid]