There’s something bizarrely beautiful about stumbling upon an official Nintendo video that stars Rabbid Peach dancing to Beyonce’s “Naughty Girl.”
The video above features actual gameplay footage from Just Dance 2018, which is currently available to play on Nintendo Switch. The video’s description refers to the video as an “alternate version of Naughty Girl by Beyoncé starring our newest coach — Rabbids Peach;” the song is available through Just Dance Unlimited, the game’s music subscription service. The dance stage is set in its own alternate version of Mushroom Kingdom, seen in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, which is also made by Just Dance developer Ubisoft.
Everything about this is absolutely perfect. From the minute Rabbid Peach appears on screen, phone in hand and posed to take a selfie, to performing a deft take on Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” dance at the end, the video is mesmerizing.
Part of the intrigue comes from the extreme juxtaposition of the song’s meaning and sound to the colorful, vibrant and innocent world set up by Nintendo. Beyonce’s “Naughty Girl,” as seen below, is a lustful tale of power and sexuality, of control and domination set within a world she controls.
Both Just Dance 2018 and Mario + Rabbids is about none of these things; and Rabbid Peach isn’t, either. The Peach that many of us remember from growing up and huddling over controllers is prim and proper, but that’s not who appears in the video. Rabbid Peach is instead almost like a mascot for Generation Z. Her cellphone appears in her hand every few seconds to take selfies while dancing, and even her moves seem ripped straight out of a freestyle choreography video.
Rabbid Peach doesn’t have the same je ne sais quoi as Beyonce, but watching her have a ball on stage, taking selfies she’ll undoubtedly post on Instagram as the night wears on, almost makes her more relatable. It’s a captivating video because, well, we’ve all either encountered, supported or been Rabbid Peach at some point in our life.
She may not be the pure, Nintendo-fied version of Beyonce’s “Naughty Girl,” but she’s certainly got a little piece of us all in her exaggerated, imaginative moves.
