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Princess Peach

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Princess Peach, as depicted in the promotional art for Super Princess Peach.

Princess Peach Toadstool (ピーチ姫, Piichi-Hime) is a fictional character in Nintendo's Mario video games series. Formerly called Princess Toadstool in the early English translations of the games, Peach is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom with a multitude of Toad servants, and is Mario's apparent love interest. In North America, Peach is no longer regularly referred to as Princess Toadstool. The name "Peach" was first used in Yoshi's Safari, and became the norm as of Super Mario 64. The text in Super Mario 64, however, does occasionally use the retro moniker.

Peach first appeared in Super Mario Bros. and has since appeared in many subsequent games, in which she is usually kidnapped by Bowser. She has also shown her fighting abilities in Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario RPG, Super Princess Peach and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

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Character

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Peach's first appearance in Super Mario Bros., in which she is rescued by Mario.
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Princess Peach in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, uses same color pallette as SMB1, but has new look

Princess Peach is portrayed as being the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. No queen appears to exist, although in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, she has a grandmother and a chancellor who appears to be in charge of ruling the Mushroom Kingdom. Like most characters from the Mario franchise, her backstory is purposely left vague and undeveloped. Her father was a common character in the Nintendo Comics System stories, in which he was portrayed as a bumbling person of little intelligence.

While the King is also mentioned in the original Super Mario Bros. instruction manual, he has never appeared in any game and is never mentioned again. In Super Mario Bros. 3, it is revealed that the Mushroom Kingdom is part of a larger "Mushroom World" comprised of seven neighboring countries (excluding the Mushroom Kingdom), each ruled by a different King. However, none of the kings in the game seem to be related to Peach. Peach lives by herself in a grand palace surrounded by Toad guards, eight of which are among the elite (Toad the character included as the highest of the guards, even though he's not the best of them). She is the "princess" referred to at the end of every level of the original Super Mario Bros. when Toad says, "Thank you Mario, but our princess is in another castle!"

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Princess Peach in her classic look.

Peach has always been depicted as a blonde. Also, in official artwork by Nintendo, her hair has been blonde since the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 (a.k.a the lost levels) 　(as seen in this flyer). However, due to the graphical limitations of the NES hardware, her on-screen sprite in the earlier Super Mario Bros. games displayed her with brown hair or red hair and outlines (presumably, this was the reason why Peach was depicted with red hair instead of blonde in the cartoons). This discrepancy was remedied in the SNES era with Super Mario World, in which was she shown with her proper hair color.

According to the American instruction booklet for Super Mario Bros., Peach is the only one who could undo the evil magic that Bowser had cast upon the Mushroom Kingdom; it was for this reason that Bowser had kidnapped her to begin with. However, upon her rescue, this prophecy is not mentioned in the game itself, nor any other game, although her sorcerous powers have been alluded to since (e.g. her ability to float in Super Mario Bros. 2. on the SNES). This prophecy was seemingly abandoned in later games, and not mentioned in the cartoons. Oddly enough, on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Peach was depicted as constantly being in search of someone who could defeat Bowser's forces, despite the fact that Mario and Luigi could do just that (and also the fact that most of the blokes they were looking for turned out to be of little to no help whatsoever). Despite all this, however, she plays a magic-related role in most of the RPGs.

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Peach invades the Koopalings' tower dressed as Luigi.

Interestingly, while Peach is usually depicted as being content to simply bake cakes and rely on her emotions to defeat enemies (as in Super Princess Peach), in Nintendo Power's Super Mario Adventures comic serial, Peach acted as macho as she could get. In this comic, she not only snaps back at the marriage-proposing Bowser, but she also beats up the Koopalings, trashes several Koopa Troopas, and even threatens to blow up a tower while wearing Luigi's clothes. Peach is so violent in this comic that Bowser has to hire a hypnotist to get her to surrender to him, perhaps so the Mario Bros. and the Yoshis can save the day in the last installment.

Voices

In Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64, she was voiced by Leslie Swan. Nintendo recycled Swan's voiceovers for Peach in Super Mario 64 DS. In Mario Party and Mario Party 2, she was voiced by Asako Kozuki. Starting with Mario Golf on the Nintendo 64, Peach has been voiced by Jen Taylor. In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Peach is voiced by Nicole Mills. In the cartoons, she was voiced by Jeannie Elias (in Super Mario Bros. Super Show) and Tracey Moore (in Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World). In the 1986 Japanese anime film Suupaa Mario Burazazu: Piichi-hime no Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen (literally, Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission To Rescue Princess Peach) she was played by Mami Yamase.

In 2005, Nintendo assigned a new voice for Princess Peach. Although Super Princess Peach still has Jen Taylor's voice, other games, such as Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time and Super Mario Strikers have a new Peach voice: Nicole Mills. There are many who still insist that Taylor plays her in games of today regardless of what is written in the credits in those respective games.

From "Toadstool" to "Peach"

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Peach with Mario and Luigi in Super Mario World.

In Japan, the Princess's name has always been Peach, but when Super Mario Bros. was released in America, Nintendo of America decided to rename her Princess Toadstool, a name she kept throughout the 8-bit and 16-bit video game eras. Often, however, in-game text only referred to her as "Princess" or "The Princess," most likely a result of space constraints or the awkwardness of "Toadstool" as a woman's first name in Western cultures. In fact, only in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was she referred to as just "Toadstool." (However, that game also featured a hero-eating boss called Belome who would say that she tasted "peachy".)

The English translation of Yoshi's Safari was the first usage of the name "Peach" outside of Japan; however, the name did not catch on at that time. When Super Mario 64 was released in North America, she signed a letter to Mario "Princess Toadstool" and then handwrote "Peach," which led many fans to believe that her full name is "Princess Peach Toadstool," with her first name Peach, and last name Toadstool. However, others think that "Peach" is her nickname, and she is of the royal house of the Mushroom Kingdom. In sequels and spinoffs, however, she has come to be known only as Princess Peach.

The only current usage of the name "Princess Toadstool" is in ports by Flagship, an independent developer that often does ports and translations of games.

Other females

  • Princess Daisy: Daisy is the ruler of Sarasaland and is a friend of Peach, she is also rumored to be Luigi's girlfriend. Voiced by Deanna Mustard.
  • Pauline: Pauline was the damsel in distress from Donkey Kong. She was Mario's girlfriend in the arcade game, and was later portrayed as Mario's niece (making her Luigi's daughter) in cartoons on Saturday Supercade. Voiced by Kate Flemming in the cartoons.

Mario RPGs

Template:Spoiler In Super Mario RPG (the first game in the Mario RPG series), Princess Toadstool is kidnapped by King Bowser early in the game, but is rescued by Mario. However, Mario, Bowser, and Princess Toadstool are sent flying out of the castle by a large sword named Exor, who was created by Smithy. After collecting some of the seven Star Pieces, Mario finds Princess Toadstool in captivity in Booster Tower, from which Mario and Bowser try to save her, but Booster rushes her off at the last minute to get married. They save her from getting married to Booster, and she soon joins the party. In battle, her abilities include various forms of healing and the ability to resurrect KO'd party members, as well as cause a storm of bombs to drop on an enemy (Psych Bomb). Her weapons include a Parasol, War Fan, Frying Pan, and a Special Glove to slap enemies with. This game shows a relative; her grandmother, a Toad (the species). This suggests that she may technically be at least part-Toad, not fully human if at all. The Chancellor in the same game is also rumored to be her father, but there is very little to verify that statement.

In Paper Mario (the second game in the Mario RPG series), she is captured by Bowser yet again. Bowser uses his castle to lift Princess Peach's castle into the air during a party, and uses his newly acquired Star Rod to kidnap the revelers (except for Luigi, who happens to walk out at the last minute), turn invulnerable, and launch Mario out of the window, putting him near death. After Peach wishes for help, a Star Kid named Twink comes along, but he is too weak to save her, and so he helps to give hints to Mario about where to go next. In each Chapter, Peach sneaks around the castle gathering information to help Mario in his quest, utilizing different characters like Gourmet Guy and different items like the Parasol to further her Bowser-thwarting efforts. During the end battle, Peach plays an integral role.

In the Game Boy Advance game Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (the third game in the Mario RPG series), Peach's voice is stolen by the evil witch Cackletta and her assistant, Fawful. Mario and Luigi venture out to the Beanbean Kingdom to reclaim her lost voice. Eventually, it is learned that they did not actually steal her voice, but the voice of a Birdo, who they used to impersonate Peach to avoid losing her voice. She was later captured by Cackletta, who had now possessed Bowser's body and is known as Bowletta, but the Mario Bros. later rescued her at Joke's End, while Bowletta went back to the Mushroom Kingdom to take over Bowser's Castle.

In the sequel to Paper Mario, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (the fourth game in the Mario RPG series), Peach is kidnapped by Sir Grodus' X-Nauts, to use her to unlock the Thousand-Year Door. Princess Peach is often called down into TEC-XX's computer room, where he often asks her for a favor, and in return, lets her email Mario to help him in his quest. Peach teaches TEC about love and sneaks around the X-Naut Fortress for him. Princess Peach learns the truth behind the X-Naut's plans seconds late. She tries to e-mail Mario to reveal their plot involving the Shadow Queen, but is ultimately unable to stop them herself. However, upon being temporarily freed from the grasp of the Shadow Queen, she sends Mario all of "her power" that she can, supporting the theory that Peach has magic powers (besides in Super Mario RPG). Could this be the same sort of technique Bowser was afraid of?

In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (the fifth game in the Mario RPG series), Peach becomes the first person to use E. Gadd's newest invention, a time machine. With the time machine, she travels to the past when she, Mario, Luigi, and Bowser were toddlers. However the point of time she picked happened to be the time when the Mushroom Kingdom was being invaded by aliens, known as Shroobs. Because of this, she ends up stuck in the past, supposedly abducted by the aliens. The player must rescue her. However, as the game progresses, players learn that she yet again played an integral role through the game.

It is also worth noting that the information booth attendants in the SNES version of Mario Is Missing! are quite obviously modeled after Peach's character design. However, they could also be Princess Daisy. Template:Endspoiler

Mario Party series

Since the first Mario Party, Peach has appeared in every single installment, including Mario Party Advance. However, she has nothing outside of appearance and voice to set her apart from other characters. The only other characters to be playable in every console Mario Party game are Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi.

Mario sports games

Princess Peach has appeared in nearly every Mario sports game. In all of the games, she is often one of the lightest characters.

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  • In the Mario Kart series, she is among the lightest characters with the fastest acceleration, the lowest top speed, and the best off-road ability to take the shortcuts on each course.
  • In the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series, she is labeled as a Technique character and has one of the lightest hits.
  • She is a captain in the game Mario Superstar Baseball.
  • She is also a playable character in Super Mario Strikers. Her special move is the 'Royal Strike'.
  • She will also appear in the first Mario Basketball Game, Mario Basket 3on3, for the Nintendo DS.

Peach has also made cameo appearances in a few non-Mario games. She is a playable guest character in the Gamecube ports of Electronic Arts games NBA Street V3 and SSX On Tour, and her portrait hangs in Hyrule Castle in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. A Peach Kart can be found and driven in Nintendogs.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

In the Super Smash Bros. series, Peach first appears in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the second game of the series. She has four special techniques:

  • Her Normal B-button move pulls out Toad, who counters many attacks with a spray of spores.
  • Her Smash-B move launches her sideways for an explosive hip bump.
  • Her Up-B move causes Peach to pull out her parasol which can be used as a weak offensive attack or, as it is most useful, as an excellent wide-range recovery move.
  • Her Down-B move, reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 2, allows Peach to pull turnips out of the ground (with a slight chance of pulling out a Bob-omb, Beam Sword, or Mr. Saturn).

Additionally, Peach has the unique ability to float for a number of seconds, much as she can in Super Mario Bros. 2, this is balanced by the fact that she is one of the lighter fighters. This floating ability makes her a very good character for beginning players (who often find themselves attempting to return to the stage proper). Her Down Smash attack is extremely damaging, inflicting up to 66% damage uncharged on inclines or to metal players.. Her ability to float, down smash, and powerful aerial attacks contribute to her being considered an upper-tier character by the competitive community.

In an interview, it was stated that both Bowser and Peach were intended to appear in the original Super Smash Bros., but were omitted due to space constraints.

Princess Peach's playable appearances

Games in which Princess Peach appears as a playable character. She was called Princess Toadstool in the NES and SNES Mario games in the North American versions, and changed to Princess Peach since the N64 Mario games.

Baby Princess

Template:Spoiler-about Baby Princess appears in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for the Nintendo DS. In the beginning of the game's story, Baby Bowser attempts to kidnap her, only for Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to come to her rescue in the end. However they all end up fleeing from the invading Shroob forces by leaving on Baby Bowser's Koopa Cruiser. Throughout the rest of the game, Toadsworth and his younger self, Toadsworth the Younger, have to keep her entertained to keep her from crying. As a baby, Peach appears to be very temperamental and prone to bursting into tears. Baby Princess is voiced by Nicole Mills. Template:Endspoiler

See also

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