Princess Peach Toadstool (Japanese: ピーチ姫, Pīchi-Hime) is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. Peach first appeared in Super Mario Bros.. She was created by Shigeru Miyamoto to be the damsel-in-distress throughout most Mario games. She resides in her castle along with many Toad retainers. Her kingdom is often attacked by the Koopa Clan, led by Bowser.

Peach has an affinity for the color pink, which accents her feminine personality and kind temperament. Peach's girlish nature and role as the damsel are often represented with her heart abilities and Princess emblems. Peach's initial design was said to represent her stubborn, yet cute, appearance.^[1]

Since her debut, Peach has appeared in installments related to the Mario game series for over 20 years. Peach is occasionally a key supporting character in mainstream games, and almost always playable in spinoff installments, including the Super Smash Bros. series.

Peach is portrayed as Mario's love interest and the frequent damsel-in-distress. She is also good friends with Luigi, Toad, and especially Princess Daisy.

History

The Legend of Zelda series

Peach made certain cameo appearances in The Legend of Zelda series.

In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and its reissues, Peach is depicted on a letter that Christine sent to Mr. Write. The photograph is deceptive, as Christine is actually a goat.

In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Peach is among the Mario characters who has a visible portrait through a window on Hyrule Castle.

Super Smash Bros. series

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Super Smash Bros. fighter Peach
Game appearances
Super Smash Bros. Melee Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Special moves
Standard:  Toad Side:  Peach Bomber Up:  Peach Parasol Down:  Vegetable Final Smash:  Peach Blossom (SSBB)
Battle entrance
Peach appears from thin air. (SSBB)

For the Super Smash Bros. installments, Peach made her debut appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee (as one of the starting participants). In this installment, she can float in mid-air and pull vegetables out of the ground as in Super Mario Bros. 2. She has a great recovery capacity but is easy to send flying. In spite of this she is a fairly easy character to use. Her Down Smash and Up Smash are quick and have several powerful, high priority hits. Peach is one of the best edge guarders in the series. Her Neutral A slap is good for disrupting combos and grabs, as well as starting combos herself. Peach's Forward Aerial Crown Slap is a great horizontal killer. She can also use an umbrella which can be used to float to the ground and whack people with. In Adventure Mode, she is fought at the end of the first stage. The player will have to fight her and Mario or Luigi. Princess Peach's Castle is also a course in the game. The detail in Peach's appearance is also greatly increased with a much more realistic look as compared to general Mario game series' installments.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Peach's return appearance for Super Smash Bros. Brawl had her heavily redesigned, based on her more recent appearances. She keeps her moveset from Super Smash Bros. Melee, as well as stay as a light character with the ability to float. Peach's new design in Super Smash Bros. Brawl is by far the most detailed look for Peach since her previous appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. There are several changes about her in Brawl. Her Peach Bomber can cover more distance and it releases a cloud of hearts. Also her Parasol and Toad can KO now. Peach's Final Smash is called Peach Blossom, and matches Peach's peaceful personality. It, by default inflicts 40% damage to all foes and causes them to fall asleep. Peach has several trophies in her honor. One is of her Brawl appearance and Final Smash. Also she has two of her Paper Mario appearances and her as Baby Peach. Her stickers are based on game artworks for Super Princess Peach, Mario Superstar Baseball, Mario Strikers Charged Football, and Super Mario Bros. 2.

Solid Snake codec conversation

• Snake: Mei Ling, tell me what you know about Peach.
• Mei Ling: Princess Peach is the beloved ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. She's been kidnapped numerous times by Bowser.
• Snake: Sounds pretty serious...
• Mei Ling: Yes, but every time it happens, Mario ends up saving her. Sure, he may not look like your ideal "knight in shining armor." A little on the short side, I'd say... But still, don't you think it's romantic? I mean, to have a guy who's always there for you?
• Snake: If he was smart, he'd tell her to stop getting kidnapped.
• Mei Ling: ...You don't get a lot of dates, do you, Snake?

Role in the Adventure Mode: Subspace Emissary

In Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary Peach was watching Mario and Kirby fighting together with Princess Zelda, and ran down to assist them after the arrival of the Primids. However, she is soon captured by Petey Piranha and put into a cage along with Zelda. Kirby, who battles Petey Piranha, has the choice to rescue either Peach or Zelda. If she is not rescued, Wario appears and uses a Dark Cannon to transform her into a trophy and runs off with her. Peach is later rescued by King Dedede along with Luigi and Ness. But his castle is raided by Bowser and his forces, who takes her with him.

If Peach is rescued, she will team up with Kirby and escape the stadium on a Warp Star. Peach and Kirby are chased by the Battleship Halberd and are forced to land on it. However, an Arwing, which was hit by the Halberd's artilery, knocks them off the ship. Unfortunately, later on in the story, Peach gets caught off guard, resulting in Bowser turning Peach into a trophy with his Dark Cannon (leaving behind a clone of Peach). As Link and Yoshi slay this clone, Mario and Pit believe that they killed the real Peach, putting the two teams into a brief conflict.

In the very latter part of the Subspace Emissary story, Peach and Zelda are found on the Halberd held captive in trophy form. After Shadow Bugs sneak in to engulf their trophies and copy their forms (resulting in their forming false versions of Peach and Zelda for a second time), they challenge Meta Knight, Lucario, and Solid Snake, who just entered the room to rescue the two princesses. Once the "false forms" of Peach and Zelda were defeated, Peach and Zelda were rescued and were able to join the rest of the group to help take back the Halberd. After that process was done, Peach also went into Subspace with the others, where they find Tabuu, the true enemy. She gets hit by his Off Waves and turned back into a trophy along with the others, but Kirby, revived by one of King Dedede's badges, manages to save her and some of the others before going to face Tabuu in a final battle.

Profile

Description

Princess Peach is depicted as a blue-eyed blond, wearing a long pink dress with arm-length gloves. Her dress has broad shoulders, a ruffled collar, and two dark pink panniers rest on the hoop skirt that accents her slender frame. The bottom of her dress has a dark pink border. Peach also wears a sapphire brooch set in gold. For her jewelry, Peach wears a crown decorated with rubies and sapphires along with sapphire earrings. In Super Mario Sunshine, this dress is shown in a lighter shade of pink. Peach's head is heart-shaped and her thin eyebrows are dark blond. Her eyes consist of numerous, thin lashes. In addition, Peach's hair falls down her back and has several small flips. Peach is taller than most characters but not all.

Peach's classic dress lacked panniers, had a belt-like piece of clothing instead of the panniers surrounding her waist, and the bottom of the dress's border went up close to her belt. Peach’s looks has not changed as drastically as other females like Daisy and Pauline. It should be metnioned that Peach shares very similar character features with Rosalina.

Hair

Peach has always been depicted as a blond in video games. In official artwork by Nintendo, her hair has been blond since the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 (a.k.a the Lost Levels); 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 blond in the DiC Entertainment cartoons. This discrepancy was remedied in the SNES with Super Mario World, in which was she shown with her proper hair color. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, her hair was changed to a more realistic tone of blond.

Main Outfits

When the Mario sports installments started with Mario Golf and Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64, her classic sports uniform was her same classic dress, except it was shorter and she was not wearing gloves and was wearing tall, long socks. However, when the GameCube Mario sports installments came around, Peach started to have more variety in her sports attire. In Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Power Tennis, she wears a sporty minidress to mainly keep the theme of her current main dress. Later on, in the case of "active sports" installments (which include Mario Superstar Baseball, Mario Hoops 3-on-3, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Mario Super Sluggers), she wears an athletic outfit to match the increased action of those said sports. The athletic outfit includes a pink tank top, pink shorts, and red and pink tennis shoes with two lace straps on each. The shorts have two white hoops on the bottom, and two white curved lines running from the side seams to the front waist.

For Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, her outfits are based off her classic and current dress combined in a much more detailed manner.

Name

In Japan, the Princess's name has always been Peach (ピーチ姫 Pīchi Hime "Princess Peach"). Peach's name is derived from the Peach tree that bears pink blossoms and juicy edible fruit. She was originally known as Princess Toadstool in the United States and other western countries. The English translation of Yoshi's Safari (1993) marked the first usage of the name "Peach" outside of Japan; however, the name did not catch on at that time, as the game itself was not very popular. In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, she went back to being called Princess Toadstool. However, in Super Mario RPG, if Belome swallowed Princess Toadstool to clone her during the fight with him in Belome Temple, he would comment that she tasted "peachy". It was not until Super Mario 64 that the name Peach became widely known outside Japan.

Personality and traits

Princess Peach is classy, kind, clever, and adventurous. She often displays an unselfish and noble spirit and puts her friends ahead of herself. For example in Super Paper Mario, Peach states she was taught to help others. She has been said to have a gentle demeanor but can be tough when it calls for it. Peach is also into sports and has been referred to in the Mario Party 5 official guide as being able to "play with the big boys." Besides sports, Peach is also into ball-room dancing, video games, singing, and playing the piano. Mario Super Sluggers hints at Peach's enjoyment of gardening.

Throughout the games many aspects of Peach's personality is showed. Peach displayed her Pure Heart in Super Paper Mario when she saved Mimi dispite being picked on by her. Along with that, she can be naive and very strongwilled at times, but Peach is also wise and motherly. Peach seems to enjoy exploring and trying new things. Peach is also sweet and hospitable to others. An example of this is when she often bakes cakes for Mario. Also in Smash Bros. Brawl's story mode, Peach offered tea to Fox and Sheik in order to calm them down. Peach was the only one able to recruit Mr. Game and Watch, who didn’t have a concept of right and wrong. And when Master Hand is defeated by Tabuu, she is the first to reach him attempting to check on him. Peach often expressed loneliness without Mario and she also apologizes excessively for getting into trouble. Peach enjoys the company of others, as she had constructed Baseball Kingdom for all her friends. She generally has the personality of a polite lady though she can be competitive and playful. She still shows good sportsmanship in many appearances. Deep down inside it bothers her that she is a constant victim of kidnapping, as seen in Super Paper Mario, but she still is very grateful for what Mario and Luigi do.

In the cartoon shows, she was also practical and generous to a fault; in one episode where the Mario Bros. are getting homesick, she vows to find a way to get them home and when they find it later in the episode, insists they take it even though Koopa is still on the loose. She was a motherly figure to the young Yoshi and Oogtar. She also has a feisty side especially in her comic appearances.

Powers and abilities

Peach isn't a typical "damsel-in-distress." When held captive Peach either sneaks around to find out information, or sends useful items to Mario. Like other Mario characters, Peach can punch, kick, jump, and even ground pound. Besides these abilities Peach has many more; most of them deal with hearts. Peach also has never been regarded as a physically strong person, but she makes up for it in technique and skill.

In spinoff installments for the Mario game series, Peach's abilities usually deal around hearts. They're mostly seen in the sports installments including, but not limited to Mario Power Tennis (Sweet Kiss Return) and Mario Hoops 3-on-3 (Heart Shot).

Skills

Peach can jump in the air and float using her dress. Princess Peach also has a parasol that helps her float or attack enemies. As shown in several games, she can pluck vegetables and hurl them at enemies. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Peach has a powerful special attack called the Peach Bomber. She twirls and then rams her rear into the opponent, who is then engulfed in an explosion. She can also take her crown off and wack her opponents. In recent games, such as Mario Strikers Charged, she has been shown to be fast and agile. She can somersault over opposing teams. She can also summon cameras to aid her. In Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Peach is a Skill-type player. She has high speed and a high level of skill, but decent stamina and low power. Peach is the only female character to have the highest level of skill but the lowest power. She does well in events such as Archery, Vault, and Aquatics.

Princess Peach is very graceful. When performing the Heart Shot in Mario Hoops 3-on-3, she will perform elegant moves while dribbling out the shape of a triangle. In many of her victory scenes Peach will do delicate twirls. Her heart abilities are once again shown in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Her Final Smash is Peach Blossom. Decorative hearts flutter around her and a decorative "border" featuring blossoming peach trees and two images of Princess Peach adorns the area around her. As Peach dances in a spotlight to a short musical piece, all of her opponents fall into a deep Sleep and take damage.

Princess Peach is mostly shown to be the heart princess. She can use hearts to absorb attacks as shown in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. When she hits the ball nicely in Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, a trail of hearts will follow the ball. Peach uses the power of love in Mario Power Tennis. Super Peach Spin is Peach's Offensive Power Shot. Peach closes her eyes, spins very fast, and hits the ball with the power of love. This will knock the opponent back a few inches then attract the opponent to the net, leaving them open to Lob Shot and lose any Power Shots he or she was storing. It has an amazing curve, in fact the best curve in the game. The recovery time is very slow though. Sweet Kiss Return is Peach's Defensive Power Shot. Peach blows a sweet kiss at the ball, and hearts will appear and carry the ball back to Peach so she can hit it. After it is used the ball is lob shotted across the net with a bit of speed. When she performs a Super Strike in Super Mario Strikers, hearts will follow the soccer ball. Peach uses her heart abilities again in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Mario Super Sluggers. In the latter game, Peach can use her Heart Power to interact with objects in Challenge Mode. Her hitting ability greatly increases when she uses her Heart Swing. A star-lit bluish and pink background appears as Peach traces out the shape of a heart with her bat. After which she hits it shattering it into smaller hearts; the hearts travel with the ball and daze any male character who tries to catch the ball. Female characters are immune to the charm. For her Heart Ball, Peach winks and blows a kiss. She then dances while charging up and then pitches the ball fast.

Relationships with other characters

Bowser

Bowser has repeatedly kidnapped Peach over a dozen times, and torments her kingdom constantly. It has been shown Bowser has fallen in love with her, and wants to win her heart. Bowser's profile, in Mario Party Advance, states he has the 'hots' for Peach. Bowser is also intensely envious of Peach's relationship with Mario, and hates it when another villian kidnaps her.

Bowser has been more open in expressing himself lately. An example of this was seen in Mario Power Tennis, where he tried to get Peach to kiss him in front of the spectators; an attempt that failed. In the sequel to Paper Mario, Bowser set out to kidnap her back from Grodus. The two do not play well when together in Mario Superstar Baseball because of their bad chemistry. In Super Paper Mario, Peach and Bowser are supposedly married by Count Bleck, making them husband and wife. Although they were wed by Count Bleck, who is obviously not authorized to do such a thing, which means that the wedding is a "sham" and, therefore, unofficial. Bowser though, continued to believe in the marriage. In Strikers Charged, the two are dipicted as rivals. In other media Bowser had been shown to have feelings for her as well.

Despite his feelings for her, Peach does not display them back. She does not, however, hold a grudge against him. Peach called Bowser sweet in Super Paper Mario, and even showed some form of concern for him. Overall, when Bowser is not kidnapping her, Peach is nice to him and likes him, as long as he does not cause trouble.

Bowser Jr.

Bowser Jr. appeared in Super Mario Sunshine claiming Peach was his mother. It is stated in Brawl he felt so strongly about her, he kidnapped her. Junior, as shown in Super Mario Sunshine, liked Peach and tried to get her to join him and Bowser, but Peach politely refused the offer.

Even though Bowser Jr. knows Peach is not his mother, he still called her 'mama' in Mario Superstar Baseball. Bowser Jr. also must be present on Peach's team in order for the team to be call Peach Princesses. Bowser Jr. has kidnapped her in Super Mario Sunshine, New Super Mario Bros., Mario Super Sluggers, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Luigi

Luigi is portrayed to be one of Peach's closest friends. In some games, Luigi accompanies Mario on his adventures to save Peach and she greatly appreciates him. The two share good chemistry in Mario Superstar Baseball but not in its sequel, Mario Super Sluggers. The two's team names in the Mario Party games have confirmed their good interactions with team names like Green Escort.

Mario

Mario is shown to be Peach's close companion since childhood. Mario saves Peach quite often and she usually will bake him a cake or kiss him upon her rescue. Since Peach's debut appearance, the two have always been shown to be in a romantic relationship. This is confirmed in the official European Mario website, in which Peach is listed as Mario's girlfriend.

In Luigi's Mansion, she sends Toad to help Luigi search for his brother, and in Mario Party 5, Peach and Mario are called "Cutest Couple". They also share chemistry together in Mario Superstar Baseball and Mario Super Sluggers, as they are "buddy players". Mario Power Tennis even goes as far as showing Mario himself telling Peach of his love for her in Peach's victory scene. Peach responded with a smile and blew a kiss. Also, in Mario's victory scene in Mario Power Tennis, Peach gives him a small kiss on his cheek. They both show deep devotion to each other as depicted in many of the games, especially in the Paper Mario series. Mario and Peach are the Secret Staff Ghosts for Rainbow Road in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. The official guide describe them at this: Aw, isn’t that cute? Mario and Peach are together again, zipping down the Rainbow Road and leaving you coughing up their dust.

In the comic "Warios Weihnachtsmärchen", published in the German Club Nintendo magazine, it is even revealed that they spent their graduation ball in school together, and that Peach decided in favor of Mario and against Wario.

In the first Paper Mario, one of the Toads tells Mario to take Peach on a date to Shooting Star Summit. For the official guide of Yoshi's Island DS, in the description for Baby Mario and Baby Peach: Dynamic Duo, Nintendo mentioned that before the "romantic entanglements" in their adult lives, they teamed up as babies to stop evil. Also the official guide for Mario Party 8 stated that Peach is apple of Mario's eye. Rosalina in Super Mario Galaxy even referred to Peach as Mario's 'Special One'. Also the two are seen holding hands toward the ending. In Mario Kart Wii, while racing with the Wii Wheels Peach and Mario playfully bump each other.

Princess Daisy

Daisy and Peach have been portrayed to be best friends since Daisy's big comeback appearance in Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64. Soon after in Mario Tennis for the Game Boy Color, Daisy is commonly alongside Peach in many cut-scenes. If something involves partners in the Mario spin-offs, the two will usually be a team. Daisy and Peach share a team orb (Flower Orb) in Mario Party 7, a team item (Heart), in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and are automatic partners in a vast amount of other games as well.

While Daisy and Peach are considered to be best friends, they are rivaled against each other in games like Mario Smash Football (where the two face-off in the game's opening) and in Mario Strikers Charged Football (where the two go up against each other in Challenge Mode). In the Super Mario manga series, the two have a friendly rivalry.

Like Luigi, the two share good chemistry in the game Mario Superstar Baseball, and she appears as the second member of Peach's team in Challenge Mode. Nintendo's Mario Power Tennis website says that Daisy is Peach's "sister in arms", a term used to describe a close friendship. In the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Wii official guides published by Prima and licensed by Nintendo, Daisy's biographies state that Peach is her cousin. That statement has yet to be proven in the games themselves, however.

Mario Super Sluggers is the first game to show the two sharing dialog in which Peach was shown to have a lot of concern for Daisy’s welfare. This can be seen after the player has rescued Peach from Bowser Jr. in the Peach Ice Garden, resulting in Peach joining the overall roster in the game's Challenge Mode.

References

This page uses content from the Super Mario Wiki. The original source was Princess Peach (Revision #768838). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Zelda Wiki, the text of the Super Mario Wiki from before June 9, 2010 is usable under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. Information about the site's copyright can be read at MarioWiki:Copyrights.