Game News Peach Switch: The princess is no longer a damsel in distress, Nintendo needs to remember that!
Published on 06/25/2023 at 07:40
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Soon Peach will be entitled to a new game, nearly 20 years after Super Princess Peach released on the DS. We just hope Nintendo avoids sexist controversy.
peach is back! On the occasion of the Nintendo Direct on June 21st, we were able to discover a new game based on the famous princess, planned for next year. No name is on the agenda yet, but we did get a glimpse of the heroine in a theatrical setting, accompanied by a celebrity-looking partner. If the Japanese company didn’t want to show anymore, Did you know this isn’t the first time Madam has the right to her own title? Back in 2005, on the Japanese Nintendo DS, players were able to discover Super Princess Peach, which was hugely popular… but was sometimes labeled as sexist. A mistake that Nintendo should not repeat.
Super Princess Peach puts the princess in the spotlight
Of course, it wasn’t until the 2000s that peach was first discovered. It was 1985 when the heroine in Super Mario Bros. took her first steps. Very quickly she became the friend of the famous plumber, but also the damsel in distress of almost the entire franchise. Over time, we no longer count how many times we’ve been able to embody it (Super Mario Bros. 2, Mario Kart or Paper Mario). It’s easy : “Princess Peach has appeared in more video games than any other female character”reports The Gamer.
However, it wasn’t until 2005 that she finally got to the forefront of her own story (if we exclude Princess Toadstool’s Castle Run at Game & Watch)… or almost. Super Princess Peach (on DS) follows her adventures on the island of emotions. At the end of a walk, Mario, Luigi and Toad are kidnapped by Bowser. Then the heroine sets out to save her with the help of Perry, an umbrella who was once a man. Upon release, the game was fairly well received. At JV we gave it a 17/20 rating. Although its gameplay is the title’s strong point, it has also drawn criticism from critics.
Unlike other Mario games, Peach doesn’t jump on turtles or eat mushrooms. Instead, she uses her feelings. Joy makes him float in the air, sadness makes him run and water the plants, anger makes him explode with rage. Only with this formula The game gets bogged down (undoubtedly, no doubt) in gender stereotypes that want women to be guided by their feelings. “There’s something quite sexist about the idea that Princess Peach’s great weapon is that she can get way too emotional on the fly,” Gamespot alludes to in their review.
His buddy is also problematic in that he steals the show. Here, gameplay stages are interspersed with cutscenes as Perry, once human, recounts his past and ambitions, leaving Peach without any development. ” Peach is just a mode of transport for the Perry journey” points out the YouTuber The Completionist. A bit of a shame as she was finally supposed to be the star of the show. To make matters worse, he’s the one that allows you to attack enemies, and each of the upgrades is dedicated to him. IGN’s Craig Harris, meanwhile, said the copy Nintendo sent him came in a scented box.
Super Mario the Movie and the New Peach
However, as we saw in the recent Mario film adaptation, Peach can be much more than just an overly emotional companion. In the feature film, the heroine has evolved enormously. She definitely says goodbye to her role as a damsel in distress and becomes badass. She fights, rides a motorbike, manages all the levels straight away and shapes the image of a strong woman who no longer needs the plumber . The princess almost steals the show. In the production, she even explains to her Toads that Mario is “not important”. You will understand that in Super Princess Peach we are far from her image.
Peach’s return to Nintendo
The question now is: will she keep that personality in the next game Nintendo gives her? Because yes, fears are already emerging. The “girly” and light side we discovered could quickly lure Nintendo into reusing sexist clichés without meaning to.As in the previous work, she seems unable to fight in close combat or even jump on enemies. Farewell to the halberd of the film. Instead, she sends her companion (a shooting star) to attack, which turns into a kind of gymnastics ribbon. Yes, just like with Perry, a prop master will likely fight instead of the princess.
At the very end of the trailer, we also got a glimpse of a change of clothes, which we don’t know much about at the moment. However, it is possible for the outfits to serve as gameplay elements. We would find a game that – again – associates women with changing their clothes and their dressing room. However, there is no need for the comet to make plans. These wardrobe changes are very common in Mario games (it’s actually one of the license’s strengths). The plumber himself dresses in white to shoot fireballs or as a cat, and will soon be an elephant in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Furthermore, this new Peach game takes place in a theatrical setting, and who says dramaturgy says costumes. If Nintendo goes down this route, the dress change for the princess will be consistent.The important thing will be to adjust the dose so that it looks “girly” but not too much.
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