49 Fun Facts About Princess Peach

In Super Mario Sunshine, which young villain kidnaps Peach after being told she is his mother?

Bowser Jr. His father had spun him the story, casting Mario as the kidnapper, and when Bowser finally owns up at the end, Junior says he had already worked it out.

Which character debuted in Super Mario Sunshine as Princess Peach's fretful old steward?

Toadsworth. He fusses over her like a grandfather for good reason: he has looked after her since she was a baby, and a younger version of him minds the infant princess in Partners in Time.

Who voices Peach in the 2023 animated Mario movie?

Anya Taylor-Joy. She argued that a capable Peach was how the role should always have been played, since a ruler who keeps getting kidnapped is not doing a very good job of leading.

Which character was Mario's love interest before Peach, in 1981's Donkey Kong?

Pauline. The game began life as a Popeye project with Olive Oyl as the damsel, and when that plan fell through Miyamoto drew a heroine of his own, known at first simply as Lady.

Which power-up, smuggled to her inside a bouquet, does Peach turn on Bowser in the 2023 animated Mario movie?

Ice Flower. Toad hides it among the flowers she is carrying, and she uses it to freeze both Bowser and the chain lowering his prisoners towards the lava.

Which side-scrolling Mario game made Peach and Daisy both playable from the outset?

Super Mario Bros. Wonder. She handles exactly like Mario in it, because the designers moved the old character-only abilities into badges so players could pick a favourite character and a favourite skill separately.

Why did Miyamoto say Peach's name came to him?

He associated girls with pink. Asked decades later, he had to think hard before guessing that a princess meant a girl and a girl meant pink, and the Japanese word for pink, momoiro, literally means peach-coloured.

What unique ability did Peach have as a playable character in Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988)?

Floating over obstacles. The hover let her drift across gaps or rescue a bad jump, at the cost of being the slowest and weakest of the four, and it became her signature move in later games.

Super Mario Bros. 2 was adapted from which Japanese game, where Peach's slot belonged to Lina?

Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic. Nintendo reskinned the Fuji TV tie-in with Mario characters because the real Japanese sequel was judged too similar to the first game and too hard for players overseas.

What does Peach say she has baked for Mario in the letter that opens Super Mario 64?

A cake. He arrives to find her sealed inside the castle walls, so the treat has to wait until the very end, when the freed princess kisses him and tells everyone to bake one for him.

Where does Super Mario Sunshine's holiday with Peach and the Toads take place?

Isle Delfino. The dolphin-shaped resort is no holiday for Mario: a paint-flinging lookalike gets him arrested on arrival, and the court orders him to scrub the whole island clean.

Why did Miyamoto say Peach sat out the Wii's four-player New Super Mario Bros.?

Her skirt would need special programming. Miyamoto said he would have liked her in, but the two Toads were built more like Mario, and he laughed that the dress was really the only reason.

Which 2013 Wii U game made Peach playable in the mainline series for the first time in 25 years?

Super Mario 3D World. She was not in the original plan: producer Yoshiaki Koizumi asked for her, saying Mario games had spent years full of male characters and needed a woman players could pick.

How does Peach become playable in Super Mario Run (2016)?

By completing World Tour mode. The story has Bowser carry her off yet again, so she joins the roster only once Mario has rescued her from the final castle.

What does Bowser want to do with Peach in Super Mario Odyssey?

Marry her. He books the Moon for the ceremony and hires wedding planners to loot each kingdom for the trimmings, from a ring and a dress to the bouquet.

At the end of Super Mario Odyssey, Mario and Bowser both thrust flowers at Peach; how does she respond?

She turns them both down. Fed up with their squabbling, she walks off to the airship without either of them, and after the credits she tours the kingdoms on her own terms.

In Super Mario Galaxy, Bowser uproots Peach's whole castle and carries it where?

The centre of the universe. He 'invites' her to watch him build a galaxy of his own there, and a flying saucer slices the castle out of the ground during the Star Festival.

What is the name of Peach's talking umbrella in Super Princess Peach?

Perry. His dreams between boss fights reveal that he was once a boy with strange powers, turned into a parasol by a pair of magicians and later sold on by a travelling merchant.

Which emotion power restores Peach's health in Super Princess Peach?

Calm. A magic sceptre has thrown everyone else's feelings into disarray, Bowser's own army included, but it never struck Peach directly, so she can switch her four moods on at will.

Where is Super Princess Peach set?

Vibe Island. Bowser built a summer getaway there after hearing it hid a legendary sceptre that controls emotions, and once he had it he locked Mario and his friends away across the island.

In Princess Peach: Showtime!, which venue must she save?

Sparkle Theatre. Peach only came to watch a show: the place is seized just as she arrives, she loses her crown in the commotion, and the theatre's guardian recruits her to win it back.

Who is the antagonist of Princess Peach: Showtime!?

It was the first game to star Peach since Super Princess Peach, nearly two decades earlier.

Before Princess Peach: Showtime! launched, Nintendo changed what on its box art?

Her expression. The gleeful smile gave way to a fiercer, more determined look, closer to her film self, and one site headlined the news 'Peach chooses violence'.

Which of these is one of Peach's stage transformations in Princess Peach: Showtime!?

Swordfighter Peach. The show's real stars have been captured, so she steps into each play's lead herself, also turning cowgirl, ninja, detective and pastry chef along the way.

What does Peach throw at opponents in Super Smash Bros.?

Turnips. She plucks them from the ground as she did in Super Mario Bros. 2, and each one's face sets its power: the rare stitch-faced turnip hits far harder than the usual smiling kind.

What is Peach's Final Smash called in Super Smash Bros.?

Peach Blossom. She dances in a spotlight while everyone nearby nods off, then either lands free hits on the sleepers or eats the healing peaches that drop around her.

Which Smash Bros. game marked Peach's debut as a fighter?

Melee. She was a newcomer playable from the start, and she brought a famously ungallant counter-move with her: holding up her loyal Toad as a shield to take the hit.

Which two household items can Peach wield as weapons in Super Mario RPG?

A frying pan and a parasol. The pan stuck with her: in Super Smash Bros. one of her smash attacks swings a frying pan, a tennis racket or a golf club.

The 2023 Switch remake of Super Mario RPG calls her Peach; what was she called in the 1996 original?

Princess Toadstool. It was her only English name until 1993, when Yoshi's Safari let her Japanese name slip through for the first time, and a letter in Super Mario 64 then signed off with both.

The Mario Tennis studio that pitched an evil twin for Peach also invented which villain?

Waluigi. His creators proposed a wicked counterpart for Peach too, but Miyamoto turned the idea down without looking at a design, reportedly assuming she would just resemble an anime villainess.

Which character is Peach's older sister in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie?

Rosalina. The two were made from stardust, and she sent the infant Peach away to keep her safe; reunited at the end, the sisters touch palms and remake an entire planet.

In the 2023 animated Mario movie, who takes Peach's usual place as the captive Mario must rescue?

Luigi. The director said saving the princess yet again would be too familiar, and that a monarch guarding a kingdom of hapless Toads had to be strong, so the nervous brother is the one who gets captured.

Who co-wrote and sang 'Peaches', the lovelorn piano ballad in the 2023 animated Mario movie?

Jack Black. The first script gave Bowser no song: the directors wrote one partway through production and sent him a rough demo, and within days he sent back a finished track with his own twist.

Which Zelda game hides a painting of Peach inside Hyrule Castle?

Ocarina of Time. Her portrait hangs behind a courtyard window with other Mario characters, drawn from Nintendo's N64 artwork of the day; the 3DS remake swapped them for a wall painted like a Super Mario level.

What weapon does Peach carry in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle?

A shotgun called a boomshot. For once she does the rescuing: she turns up at the end of the second world to save a frozen Mario and his team, then joins them for the rest of the fight.

What was odd about the Peach amiibo that set a 2014 Guinness World Record as the most expensive?

It had no legs. A factory fault left the figure without them, and the still-sealed oddity went on to sell for $25,100 in an eBay auction that December.

Which version of Peach first appeared as an unlockable racer in the original Mario Kart 8?

Pink Gold Peach. Her designers wanted a heavyweight racer who was a woman, and the metal was argued over: platinum and plain gold were both considered before a woman on the team proposed pink gold.

Which board in the first Mario Party is themed around a celebration for the princess?

Peach's Birthday Cake. Players circle a giant two-layer dessert with the star perched on top, and the board was one of those rebuilt for Mario Party Superstars in 2021.

In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, who kidnaps Peach?

The X-Nauts. Their own base computer falls in love with the captive princess and lets her secretly e-mail Mario in exchange for lessons about love.

In the 2020 Paper Mario game, what does King Olly do to Peach and the Toads?

Folds her into origami. Mario turns up for a festival to find her already creased and brainwashed, and by the finale she has been folded flat into the wall of the villain's throne room.

In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, what do the villains come to the castle to steal from Peach?

Her voice. They need it to wake a wish-granting star, but the princess had been warned: the 'Peach' they robbed was Birdo in disguise, and the wrong voice sends the star berserk.

Who took over as Peach's English game voice in 2025, succeeding Samantha Kelly?

Courtney Lin. Her predecessor of 17 years told fans that Nintendo had decided to recast the part, and Lin confirmed she was the new princess once Mario Kart World had come out.

In the 1986 Mario anime film, the dog that leads the brothers to Peach is revealed to be whom?

Her fiancé. Once the spell breaks he is Prince Haru, turned into a dog by a villain who wanted his place as the groom, and a heartbroken Mario can only wish the couple well.

In the 1992 comic Super Mario Adventures, Peach is smuggled into the villains' tower inside what?

A pizza box. Her friends pose as delivery men after the villains are talked into ordering in, and she bursts out clutching a bomb, threatening to blow up the tower unless Mario is freed.

How does Peach's star move disguise the ball in Mario Superstar Baseball?

With hearts. Her pitch vanishes into a scatter of them and reappears only just before it crosses the plate, and when she bats, the same trick hides a fly ball until it is almost on the ground.

The 2018 fan comic that first showed a Mario villain wearing the Super Crown gave rise to which Peach lookalike?

Bowsette. The four-panel comic never names her: an artist in Malaysia simply drew Bowser trying the crown on, and fans supplied the name as the image raced around the internet.

What colour is the roof of Peach's castle, with its stained-glass portrait of her, in most Mario games?

Red. The look was fixed by Super Mario 64, which turned the building into the hub of an entire game, with whole worlds hidden behind the paintings on its walls.

Peach's father appears in the English manual for 1985's Super Mario Bros. but in no game; what is he called?

The Mushroom King. He owes his existence to a single line: the American manual calls the princess his daughter, the Japanese manual has no such line, and no game has ever put him on screen.

In the English version of Super Mario Bros. 3, what does the rescued princess do before saying goodbye to Mario?

Tells a joke. She repeats the dreaded line from the first game, that the princess is in another castle, then laughs 'Just kidding!'; the Japanese original has her simply announce that peace has returned.