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TheSuper Marioseries is perhaps the most iconic in the world of gaming, and a big reason for this is the recognizable cast of characters that have appeared in most of the games. Alongside the Mario brothers themselves, one of the most popular characters in the series is Princess Peach.
This royal is often mischaracterized as ‘just a damsel in distress’, but when taking a closer look at her appearances throughout both mainline and spin-off Mario titles, we can see this is not the case. So, what more do we know about Princess Peach, and what are some of her most iconic roles in the series?
Princess Peach’s Backstory
Peach’s Name
While she is known as Princess Peach now, in her earlier years,the Princess was more commonly referred to as Princess Toadstool, and if you play some Mario games from the early ’90s and before, you can find almost no reference to her being called Peach.
This is just in the West, though,as her name has always been Princess Peach in Japan.
Her name was chosen since the developers associated the pink colour of her dress with the shade of pink commonly associated with peaches in Japan.
However, when her first in-game appearance was being localized by Nintendo of America, they decided thatthe name Peach made no sense with the theme of the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom,and instead decided to rename her Princess Toadstool to fit in with the fungi-themed area.
While Princess Toadstool stuck for a while, the name Peach stuck in Japan as well, andthe name made its way over to the West first in Yoshi’s Safari in 1993, but it didn’t replace her name until Super Mario 64 in 1996.
This is explained away withPeach being her first name and Princess Toadstool being a more formal title, which can be seen in how she signs her letter in Mario 64.
In even later games, this is further contextualized withher full name being given as Peach Toadstool.
Peach’s Design
Peach’s design has remained relatively consistent.Aurora from Sleeping Beauty is often noted as a design inspiration, thanks to her blonde hair and pink dress.
However, in some of her earlier appearances in-game,her dress has appeared to be more red than pink, and her hair has occasionally shown to be astrawberry blonde or even light brown.
Peach’s white and red dress, which appeared in-game in the original Super Mario Bros. and The Lost Levels, was eventuallyreused in Super Mario 3D WorldforPeach’s fire form, being the first time Peach was able to equip the iconic Power-Up.
Even though the sprite was only this colour due to graphical limitations on the NES, it’s kept a secret from you until you reach her in-game.
While the Princess is mentioned by name in the manual, whereher sprite would appear, you only see a ‘?’, incentivising you to reach her in-game.
Peach’s Backstory In Games
Despite all of Peach’s appearances throughout the history of the Mario series,there isn’t much backstory to her character before the events that take place.
The closest we get to this is inMario & Luigi: Partners In Time, where you see Baby Peach, but since she is so young, there isn’t much in the way of an origin story.
However, you do see that she is being cared for by Toadsworth, and that,even as a baby, she was subject to kidnapping attempts from Baby Bowser.
When it comes to narratives following Peach, they tend tofocus more on the present, similar to most Super Mario stories, and less on character-driven motivations.
What we do know of Peach that remains consistent throughout most of her appearances is thatshe is the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, and even though her subjects and citizens appear to be almost entirely Toads, she seems to be a human, like Mario and Luigi.
Peach’s Personality
While Peach is often stereotyped as helpless, due to her most mainstream appearances showing her frequently getting kidnapped, this is not what defines her personality when looking deeper. Peach is shown to havea kind and sociable nature, and she is also forgiving.
This can be seen in hersaving Mimi in Super Paper Mario, even after she belittled and attacked her, and in her making a cake for Bowser at the end of Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story.
On top of this, she is displayed to havea strong willpower, which can be seen in herresisting mind control in Super Paper Mario, andresisting possession in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
This kindness and strong willpower is shown to manifest inhealing abilities. In most of the Mario RPGs where she is playable, she is shown to focus on healing, andeven in games where she isn’t playable, she can still heal the player characters.
Her royal status often manifests in herdiplomacy and social skills. One of the best examples of this is during the Subspace Emissary story mode inSmash Bros.Brawl, where she is able to make peace between Sheik and Fox by offering them both tea.
She is also well-known forher romantic relationship with Mario, but the actual status of their relationship tends to shift depending on the specific game they feature in together. Sometimes it seems like they are official, while others it is just pining, but since it is never that much of a focus, the lack of consistency doesn’t matter too much.
Another character that Peach is shown to have a close relationship with, especially in spin-off games, isDaisy.
In guides for Mario Kart Double Dash, and Mario Kart Wii,the two are described to be cousins. However, the information has not been mentioned since, and has not been confirmed by Nintendo.
Peach’s Appearances
As mentioned,Peach has more appearances in different games than any other female character in gaming, so mentioning each of these appearances would be a gargantuan task.
This section focuses on her most noteworthy appearances, and how they contribute to her character. She appears in plenty of mainline, as well as spin-off Mario titles, so here are the most noteworthy.
Mainline
While Mario debuted in Donkey Kong a few years earlier, Peach would not make her first appearanceuntil the original Super Mario Bros. in 1985.
It is a common misconception that Mario is vying to save Peach in Donkey Kong since they have been paired up so much in recent years,but the identity of the damsel in that game is actually Pauline, a character who has started her own renaissance since Mario Odyssey.
Even with the limited storytelling capability on the original NES,Peach fulfills the same role she does in many of her other appearances in her debut. She has been kidnapped by Bowser and requires Mario’s help to save her.
She has a similar role in the sequel, Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels. This isthe very first mainline Mario game where Peach is playable, and is where a lot of her abilities we still recognize today originate.
This version of the game is nowhere near as well known in Japan since their Super Mario Bros. 2 is an almost completely different game.
In the Western launch of Super Mario Bros. 2, the gameplay is quite a shift from the original, but still retains platforming elements, but also has more involved puzzle elements as well.
You can play as one of four characters, with (at the time)Princess Toadstool being an option. All characters control differently withPeach having a lower jump than average, and a weaker throwing ability, but has her now signature floating jump. While this ability was missing for a while after this game, it has returned in most other mainline games where Peach is playable.
The Western release of Super Mario Bros. 2 isthe last time in years that Peach is playable in a mainline Mario game, but she does take a more active role than in the Lost Levels and the original in Super Mario Bros. 3.
Here she sends letters to the brothers with items and gives them advice on how to beat the game. While she gets kidnapped in Super Mario World as well, she willthrow items to your characters to help in the fight at the end.
In Super Mario 64, her first mainline Western launch as Peach, she is again trapped by Bowser, but she does have a more active role in the follow-up Mario Sunshine. While she does get kidnapped by Bowser Jr. a few times, she is shown to have more agency,trying to warn Mario of Shadow Mario’s activity, as well as trying todefend Mario in court when he is being framed.
She unfortunately has avery minor role in both Mario Galaxy games, but this is likely to divert focus to the new princess; Rosalina.
During the’New' Super Mario Bros. era, Peach ends up returning to her more standard role, but she was supposed to be a playable option in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but this wasscrapped due to apparent technical difficulties with her dress.
Peachette And Playable Peach
She isn’t playable throughout any of the ‘New’ 2D titles, but in the Switch port of New Super Mario Bros. U,Toadette can gain a power-up to turn her into Peachette, who has similar abilities to Peachin Super Mario Bros. 2, and if you make it to the end with this power-up active, Peach will give Peachette a confused look.
The first mainline game since Super Mario Bros. 2 where Peach is playable isSuper Mario 3D World, where Peach stands out from the other options by having her standard floating jump back. While only Mario is playable in Mario Odyssey,Peach is shown to take a major role in the post-game.
After escaping Bowser’s planned wedding, Peach tours the different areas Mario has explored, wearing some of her most iconic vacation outfits in the process.
Peach is finally playable again in a 2D Mario title inSuper Mario Bros. Wonder, but this comes with thecost of losing her floating jump, since all of the characters are designed to control the same, except Nabbit and the Yoshis serving as an easy mode.
Spin-Off
You get to see a lot more of Peach’s personality in the Mario spin-off titles. In Paper Mario especially, Peach gets a lot more focus.
In the original,she teams up with Twink to sabotage Bowser and leak information to Mario. She has a major role in both The Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario, where she even joins your party.
A missed opportunity was Super Princess Peach, which was her first title as the protagonist, and while a fun title, did not give much new characterization for the princess, with the story morefocused on her amnesiac umbrella Perry.
