is a character in Nintendo's Mario franchise. She was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and introduced in the 1985 original Super Mario Bros. game as Princess Toadstool. She is the princess regnant and head of state of the Mushroom Kingdom, where she resides in her castle along with Toads. Since her debut, she has appeared in the majority of Mario video games as the main female character and the romantic interest of Mario.
As the lead female character in the main Super Mario series, Peach's role is typically the damsel in distress who is kidnapped by the series antagonist, Bowser. In most of the games, her role is to be a captive until she is eventually rescued by Mario. In several later games of the series, such as Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Run, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, she is a playable character. Outside the series, she has appeared as the protagonist and player character of several video games, including Princess Toadstool's Castle Run, Super Princess Peach, and Princess Peach: Showtime!. She also makes regular appearances as a playable character in Mario spin-offs and other video game series, including Mario Sports games, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Paper Mario, and the fighting game series Super Smash Bros.
Peach is one of the best-known female protagonists in video game history, having appeared in more video game titles than any other female character. She has also appeared in official merchandise, comics, and animated series. In The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026), she is voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy. Peach has received a mixed reception, with much commentary being critical of her longstanding repetitive role as a princess waiting to be rescued. She has been described by critics as one of the most iconic and influential female video game characters.
Concept and creation Characterization
Princess Peach was preceded as Mario's romantic interest by a character named Pauline (originally named Lady) that appeared as the damsel in distress in Mario's first video game, Donkey Kong, in 1981. Mario's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, wanted to use the characters Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl from the Popeye cartoon as the main characters but failed to obtain the license, so he transformed them into Jumpman (Mario), Donkey Kong, and Pauline. Donkey Kong established Pauline's role as the female character who is rescued by Mario and appears as the damsel in distress in subsequent games. With the arrival of the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros., Pauline was replaced by Princess Peach. Miyamoto later said that Donkey Kong had been designed for arcades, which were frequented by male gamers, so Nintendo did not consider making a character that would be playable by girls. Several characteristics of Princess Peach were introduced in the 1996 role-playing game Super Mario RPG, including her use of a parasol as a weapon and a sleep spell ability that inspired her Final Smash in the Super Smash Bros. series.
Following the debut of Waluigi in Mario Tennis, an evil version of Peach named "Walupeach" was pitched by Shugo Takahashi, co-founder of Camelot Software Planning, but the concept was rejected by Miyamoto before seeing the design, saying that it would be "just like Doronjo" from the Yatterman anime series. The design was pitched again by Waluigi's creator, Fumihide Aoki, for the 2004 video game Mario Power Tennis, but was rejected by Nintendo.
When discussing Peach's portrayal in Super Princess Peach, released in 2005, Miyamoto said that it was important for Nintendo for Peach to be "Peach-like", meaning that she evokes the "free optimism of a Princess." He explained that she has never seen herself as being "protected" by Mario, and that their intended image of her is an image of strength, due to many Nintendo developers being used to a matriarchal figure at home.
Reflecting on Peach's role within the franchise, Miyamoto said that although Nintendo had intentionally "kept Peach as a damsel in distress who is rescued by Mario for a while", they had wanted to develop her into a "more powerful princess" by featuring her as a capable playable character in the games and giving her a major role in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. He said that Peach was one of the characters in the film that evolved the most, as her role was changed from a princess that needs to be protected to one who fights for her kingdom. After the release of the film in 2023, Peach's appearance was updated on the box art for Princess Peach: Showtime! to make her appear more angry and determined like her movie counterpart.
During a later interview for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Miyamoto elaborated further on the topic. He stated that Peach’s damsel in distress role was initially used out of a desire to provide players with a quick to understand objective, as he considered that clarity and simplicity in game objectives were very important. Miyamoto stated that he understood the criticisms that mentioned how the kidnapped damsel in distress role "didn't fit with the current image of women" but claimed that it was "a part of the game's mechanics that [couldn't] be easily changed" and therefore the common plot of "going to rescue the kidnapped princess" remained unchanged for many Mario games. Regarding the changes made to Peach's movie counterpart, he considered that presenting Peach as solely a "fighting female character" in The Super Mario Bros. Movie was "a bold change", but by the time of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie he acknowledged "that wasn't enough" and sought to depict "Peach's worries and emotions, and the fluctuations in her relationship with Mario" to make her movie counterpart "a richer character".
Design
Peach's initial appearance was drawn by Miyamoto, who later asked Yōichi Kotabe to redraw Peach with his instructions. He had asked Kotabe to draw her eyes to be "a little cat-like" and wanted her to look "stubborn, but a little cute". A strategy guide titled How to Win at Super Mario Bros., which was published around the time of the first Super Mario Bros. game in 1985, depicted the princess as a human on its cover, but also with an alternative design featuring a mushroom head. Other merchandise designs created around the time of the first game depicted Peach with straight, long blonde hair wearing a red skirt, illustrating that her design was not finalized until later games.
Names Miyamoto said that Peach's name came from associating princesses with girls, and when thinking about girls, he would think of pink. In Japan, Peach's name has always been since her debut in the original Super Mario Bros. in 1985. However, she was localized as "Princess Toadstool" in the English-language manual. The English version of Yoshi's Safari, released in 1993, contained the first usage of the name "Peach" in the Western world, though she was called Princess Toadstool in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, released in 1994. In Super Mario 64, released in 1996, she uses both names in a letter addressed to Mario, signing it "Peach". From the 1996 game Mario Kart 64 onward, the name Peach is used in Western versions.
Voice acting Various voice actors have provided the English voice for Princess Peach. Since 2025, she has been voiced by Courtney Lin. Peach was previously voiced by Samantha Kelly from 2007 to 2024, and by Jen Taylor from 2000 to 2007. Her other voice actors include Jeannie Elias in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, Tracey Moore in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, and Leslie Swan, a localization manager for Nintendo.
Characteristics
Peach is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom and ruler of her subjects, known as Toads, a species of mushroom-like people. Although she has appeared in a variety of outfits, Peach typically wears her pink princess dress with puffy sleeves combined with long white gloves. Her royal abode is a large castle with white walls and a red roof, adorned with a stained-glass portrait of the princess. Peach is the daughter of the Mushroom King (also named King Toadstool), a character that appears in the Super Mario Bros. comics and is mentioned in the manual for the first Super Mario Bros. video game but has never appeared in the video games. She is presented as one of the few humans in the kingdom, despite the Toads being the predominant race. Throughout the mainline series, the Mushroom Kingdom is under persistent attack from Bowser and his minions, and Peach's role is to be his kidnapping victim. Her age has never been officially confirmed, but it varies between mid-teens and early twenties.
Despite being the lead female character of the Mario franchise, Princess Peach has rarely been the protagonist of Mario video games. Since the first Super Mario Bros. video game, she has repeatedly been the damsel in distress of the main series, typically appearing at the end of the game to reward Mario after successfully rescuing her. She is a playable character in various spin-off games and has wielded several weapons, including a frying pan and a parasol. She also demonstrates magical powers, such as the ability to heal in Super Mario RPG. In the first Super Mario Bros. game, her white magic is the only way to undo the chaos caused by Bowser to the Mushroom Kingdom. Peach's relationship with Mario is a central element of the series, yet it remains ambiguous. Although Nintendo describes them as friends, suggestions of a romantic relationship between Peach and Mario recur throughout the series.
Appearances Super Mario series Peach made her debut as Princess Toadstool in the 1985 platform game Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The story involves King Koopa kidnapping her and hiding her in one of eight dungeons, necessitating Mario and Luigi to find and rescue her. After navigating his way through eight worlds and defeating King Koopa over a pit of lava, Mario receives a "Thank you, Mario!" from the princess as a hero's reward. A sequel to the game was released in Japan in 1986 as Super Mario Bros. 2 and was eventually released in North America as part of Super Mario All-Stars in 1993, titled Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. Like its predecessor, the game involves Mario or Luigi attempting to rescue the princess from Bowser. In 1988, the princess was upgraded to a playable character on the NES with the release of a second sequel titled Super Mario Bros. 2. As one of four playable characters in the game, she had the unique ability to float over obstacles. The game was made from a preexisting Japanese game named Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic to repurpose it for a Western audience; thus, Princess Toadstool was used in place of Lina, one of the characters in the Japanese version. In the NES game Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988), Mario embarks on a quest to rescue seven kings from Bowser's Koopalings but eventually discovers that Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser. After Mario's quest to rescue the princess is complete, she rewards him with a joke and a dismissive "Bye bye".