The Damsel in Distress
I’ve been into video games since the late ’80s, when I had to play at my cousin’s house and hide the fact from my mother because “video games are for boys,” to the present day, where I can pull my plastic guitar out and pretend to be a rock star with my friends and a mixed drink. In that time, I’ve seen the genre, if not gender, change drastically. Just as television has morphed from the era of I Love Lucy and June Cleaver to Desperate Housewives and Marge Simpson, female video game characters have evolved from the hapless Princess Peach to parkour legend Faith Connors.
The first stop on our carousel of pixilated estrogen is Princess Peach from the Mario series. This pastel parasail-parading princess first pranced onto the scene in Super Mario Bros. in 1985. After spending the entire game “in another castle” the player who saves Peach is rewarded for the effort by a kiss on the cheek and a thank you.
Since then, Peach has appeared in over 40 games in the Mario Series. In most of these outings, this lovable member of the royal toadstool family is about a practical and useful as high-heeled flip-flops—however, as the Mario series branched away from adventure series to multi-player party games, Princess Peach became a playable character. Still, with moves such as “Group Hug” and dialogue like, “I love games with rainbows!” it was hard to take her seriously.
In recent years, Nintendo has copped on to Peach’s one-dimensional nature and even poked some fun at the archetype. Super Princess Peach for the Nintendo DS in debuted in 2006. In this version, the princess rescues Mario and Luigi from Browser.
I admit, when I met the regal pink princess when I was eight years old, I took one look at her and wrinkled my nose. Despite the gender gap, I found myself identifying with Luigi, the green-hued sidekick far more than the princess. While Peach and I have both matured over the years, I’ve never quite overcome my initial dislike for her vapid helplessness. Despite my personal prejudices, I think a quote from Mario Party 5 sums it up best: “Peach has come a long way since her early days as a perpetual hostage. She plays with the big boys these days, and she holds her own just fine!”
The first stop on our carousel of pixilated estrogen is Princess Peach from the Mario series. This pastel parasail-parading princess first pranced onto the scene in Super Mario Bros. in 1985. After spending the entire game “in another castle” the player who saves Peach is rewarded for the effort by a kiss on the cheek and a thank you.
Since then, Peach has appeared in over 40 games in the Mario Series. In most of these outings, this lovable member of the royal toadstool family is about a practical and useful as high-heeled flip-flops—however, as the Mario series branched away from adventure series to multi-player party games, Princess Peach became a playable character. Still, with moves such as “Group Hug” and dialogue like, “I love games with rainbows!” it was hard to take her seriously.
In recent years, Nintendo has copped on to Peach’s one-dimensional nature and even poked some fun at the archetype. Super Princess Peach for the Nintendo DS in debuted in 2006. In this version, the princess rescues Mario and Luigi from Browser.
I admit, when I met the regal pink princess when I was eight years old, I took one look at her and wrinkled my nose. Despite the gender gap, I found myself identifying with Luigi, the green-hued sidekick far more than the princess. While Peach and I have both matured over the years, I’ve never quite overcome my initial dislike for her vapid helplessness. Despite my personal prejudices, I think a quote from Mario Party 5 sums it up best: “Peach has come a long way since her early days as a perpetual hostage. She plays with the big boys these days, and she holds her own just fine!”
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