Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a fighting game created by Masahiro Sakurai along with Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. The game was published by Nintendo as the latest in the Super Smash Bros. series, and this specific version is available to play on the Nintendo Switch.
For this critical play, I decided to play the character Princess Peach. Peach is a character known from the other Super Mario games as the “damsel in distress,” as she is always being rescued by Mario. However, in Smash Bros, while Peach maintains stereotypically feminine attributes from her character in other games, her moveset and great ability as a fighter in this competitive context lend itself to a powerful narrative that her unique appearance in this fighting line-up don’t detract but actually add to her power and confidence within her femininity. Moreover, to play Smash Bros. like a feminist I aimed to look at the systems of power and the game’s efforts to craft feminist narratives to identify opportunities to disrupt the notion of the “boy’s playground,” reimagine character interactions, and derive lessons from the gameplay.
Peach is a very stereotypically feminine character, as evidenced by her bright pink dress and costume jewelry. During first gameplay with Peach, it appears that she is weak because her moves are all very airy and “girly,” with sparkle visuals and twinkling sound effects that don’t traditionally signal power.
[Image depicting one of Princess Peach’s moves that emits a rainbow and twinkle sounds. A majority of her moves have this kind of sparkle or hearts that emit from her. ]
Because of this, many people I was playing with were saying she was a throwaway character because she wasn’t very useful other than a “pretty character to look at.” However, Peach is a very technical character and it takes a lot of practice with her movesets to fully grasp her potential as a fighter.
Specifically, Peach shines with the “float” mechanic, which allows the player to more easily do aerial moves that are hard to defend or punish. Peach’s float allows for more combos and opportunities to do damage in creative ways that when used right are difficult for other players to combat.
[Image showing Peach’s main “float” move, where she uses a pink parasol to float.]
The float also allows you to make certain attacks quicker. Looking at this from a feminist lens, this move relates to the idea that women should be “graceful” and is amusing as it can be used to make Peach’s moves stronger and faster against opponents. There is something very powerful about a pink princess character floating around and destroying opponents much bigger and “stronger” looking, such as Bowser or Ganondorf. This is something noticed by players, as whenever I managed to successfully combo with Peach, other people were always very surprised and wanted to learn how to use her character too, which is powerful in and of itself. This mechanic demonstrates how the game challenges the traditional ideas of women as simple or weak, it’s clear the game designers purposefully employed a steep learning curve for Peach’s moves. While sword or mage characters may be fairly intuitive to use, mastering playing Peach requires a deeper understanding of her unique abilities. This design choice effectively balances her moves while embracing and highlighting her femininity, demonstrating the designers’ commitment to portraying Peach.
In this way, Smash Bros. is able to do Peach’s character justice, marking a departure from players’ initial understanding about Peach as a damsel in distress. Since Peach is usually a non-playable character, players never get a chance to fully understand her abilities. However, this game allows her agency to fight for herself, giving players the autonomy to make a judgment on her skills once they’ve seen her strengths.
Smash Bros makes other attempts at distancing her character from what we believe we understand about Peach. For example, in many other games, she’s always always referred to as Princess Peach, but in this game she’s just “Peach,” and she’s one of the first characters on the character choosing screen. This shift contributes to her appeal as a character independent of her royalty. Moreover, Peach is often portrayed as one-dimensional in other games, but Smash Bros adds layers to her character through the post-game screen. In it, Peach asks, “Oh, did I win?” with a sassy tone, which is a phrase that evolved from earlier versions of the game where her surprise seemed genuine, reinforcing a stereotypical “airhead” persona. This updated dialogue suggests a deeper self awareness where Peach recognizes and subtly critiques how others may underestimate her based on her appearance, yet she triumphs regardless.
Even so, the game is not perfect in its depictions of Peach’s character. For example, Peach’s entrance involves waving to the camera and cheerfully saying “Hi!”—a gesture shared only with Princess Daisy. While this aligns with her princess persona, it feels showy when compared to the more dynamic and action-oriented entrances of characters like Fox, who arrives in a ship, or even Pikachu, who appears with a lightning bolt. This type of introduction seems to relegate Peach to her traditional non-playable character role rather than highlighting her as a fighter. In this opening scene especially, it would be very powerful to see some kind of game face from Peach that departs from her always bright and cheery smiles to showcase that she is a capable opponent and can be serious.
Furthermore, it would not be a comprehensive analysis of Smash Bros to leave out that the game has elements that unnecessarily sexualize Peach. For example, her final smash move involves her blowing a kiss that puts nearby opponents to sleep, and her taunt move features her swiveling her hips and winking at the camera.
[Image depicting a scene from Peach’s Final Smash move: Peach Blossom, where she puts opponents to sleep with a kiss.]
Such actions, along with frequent blowing kisses in either end scenes or story scenes, do not serve her character’s portrayal as a formidable fighter but rather reduce her to a stereotype that detracts from her combat skills. Additionally, when Peach is hit, she primarily emits a surprised “Uh!” sound, which signals distress and annoyance—emotions that echo her limited expressions in other games. This contrasts with the grunts of other characters that might convey exertion or resilience. In order to better reflect Peach’s strength as a character, it would be more fitting to have these fighting sound effects demonstrate greater confidence and fortitude that Peach already exhibits in her moves.
[Image showing one of Peach’s post-game screens where she blows a kiss. Although other male characters frequently celebrate in their end scenes, it seems that even though Peach has won, she still must maintain her “princess” image in these scenes.]
In class, I’d be interested in discussing how we can apply these examples of Peach’s embrace of her femininity while also showcasing her complexity and power, and look at how we can go about designing other female characters in games to better maintain this balance, ensuring they are both empowered and authentically represented.
