Princess Peach
From Freepedia
Princess Peach (ピーチ姫, Piichi Hime) (formerly called Princess Toadstool in the English translations), is a fictional character in Nintendo's Mario video games series. She is a princess of the Mushroom Kingdom with a multitude of Toad servants, and is Mario's apparent love interest.
Peach first appeared in Super Mario Bros. and has since appeared in many subsequent games where she is continuously kidnapped by King Bowser (previously called King Koopa), despite the fighting abilities she demonstrates in Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario RPG, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. She will soon be starring in her own game for Nintendo DS entitled Super Princess Peach; but there are no concrete plans to release this game outside of Japan, at this point.
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Character
Princess Peach is often 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 had a grandmother and a grandfather, who was the Chancellor of Mushroom Kingdom, and like most characters from the Mario franchise her backstory is purposely left vague and undeveloped. King Toadstool was a common character in the Nintendo Comics System stories, and was portrayed as a bumbling person of little intelligence. The king is also mentioned in the original Super Mario Bros. instruction manual. In most games, however, Peach can be seen living by herself in a grand palace, surrounded by Toad servants. She is much beloved by her subjects and much panic always grips the Kingdom when she is captured.
She and Mario's relationship is never defined, but if Peach ever needs to pick a king, you-know-who is it.
In Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64 she was voiced by Leslie Swan. She is currently voiced by Jen Taylor. In the cartoons, she was voiced by Jeannie Elias, and later Tracey Moore.
Name issues
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 as throughout the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. When Super Mario 64 was released in the United States, she signed a letter to Mario "Princess Toadstool" and then handwrote "Peach," which led many fans to believe that "Peach" is her given name and she is of the Royal House of "Toadstool". In sequels and spinoffs, however, she came to be known only as Princess Peach. (The first English game to call her Peach was Yoshi's Safari, but most people associate the milestone with the much more popular Super Mario 64).
The only modern usage of the name "Princess Toadstool" is in ports by Flagship, an independent developer that often does ports and translations of games.
Other lead females
It is worth noting that it was not Princess Peach whom Mario saves in Donkey Kong; that was Pauline, though Princess Peach is often substituted for her in Donkey Kong remakes like the ones for the Game & Watch Gallery series. Peach should also not be confused with Princess Daisy from Super Mario Land and recent titles in the Mario Party and Mario sports franchises. However, in the film Super Mario Bros., Mario and Luigi save a princess named Daisy — not Peach — though this character resembles Daisy very little. One might infer that the film's writers named this character "Daisy" because Peach was still known to Americans as "Toadstool" at the time and the name seemed inappropriate. The film also included a character named "Daniella," though this character seems to based on more Pauline than any other character in the games.
Mario RPGs
In Super Mario RPG, the first of the Mario RPG series developed by Square Soft, Princess Peach was kidnapped by King Bowser early in the game, but rescued by Mario. However, he, Bowser and Peach were knocked out of the castle by a large Sword named Exor, created by Smithy. After a while of collecting some of the seven Stars, Mario finds Peach, in captivity in Booster's Tower, in which Mario and Bowser tried to save her, but Booster took 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 dead party members as well as cause a storm of bombs to drop on an enemy (Psych Bomb), and her weapons include a parasol and frying pan and a special glove to slap enemies with.
In Paper Mario, she was captured by Bowser yet again. Bowser used his castle to propel Princess Peach's castle into the air, and used his newly acquired Star Rod to kidnap the party members (except for Luigi, who happened to walk out at the last minute) turn invulnerable, and launch Mario out of the window, putting him near death. After wishing for help, a small Star named Twink comes along, but 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, using different people like Gourmet Guy and different items like the Parasol to get around.
In the sequel, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, 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.
In the GBA game Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, 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 Birdo, who they used to impersonate Peach to avoid losing her voice.
Mario Parties
Since the first Mario Party, Peach has appeared in every single debut, including Mario Party Advance. The only characters to not be playable in every console Mario Party games are Waluigi, Princess Daisy, Boo, Koopa Kid, Toad, Toadette, Birdo, Dry Bones and Donkey Kong. However, she has nothing outside of appearance to set her apart from other characters.
Mario sports
Princess Peach is often the lighter characters, especially in games like Super Mario Kart and Mario Tennis, in which she was labelled as a Technique character (although in the cover art for Mario Tennis, she appears as some kind of administration, like a referee). She appears as a playable character in the Golf series, and the Tennis series, and has a lighter hit than other characters like Mario or Bowser; she is also a captain in the game Mario Superstar Baseball. While not games in the Mario Sports series of games she is also a playable guest character in the Gamecube ports of EA's NBA Street V3 and SSX On Tour. She will also be a playable character in Super Mario Strikers which is a Mario soccer (or football as the sport is called in other countries other than the U.S) game. She will also appear in the first Mario Basketball Game, Mario Basket 3on3 for Nintendo DS.
Super Smash Bros.
In the Super Smash Bros. series, Peach first appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the second game of the series. She was given four special techniques: Her normal B-button move pulled out Toad, who countered many attacks with a spray of spores. Her Smash-B move would launch her sideways for an explosive hip-attack. Up-B caused Peach to pull out her parasol which could be used as a weak offensive attack or, as it was most useful, as an excellent wide-range recovery move. Using her Down-B attack, reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 2, Peach pulled Turnips out of the ground. (There was 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 could in Super Mario Bros. 2. This floating ability makes her a very good character for beginning players (who often find themselves attempting to return to the stage proper), but she is still a very strong character and is considered an upper-tier competitor.
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.
