Love in Gaming: Peach and Mario

It's every nerd boy's dream: getting together with the hot girl who sees beyond your appearance and likes you for you. It's that small (or not so small) yearning for acceptance, for someone to care for who we are, not what we look like. Society places such importance on the physical that we often develop hangups regarding our bodies, which will always lead us to think we're not good enough. For that reason it's heartwarming to see a work of art that shows the fat, funny looking guy get together with the girl one would think way out of his league. Today's couple is no exception: Peach and Mario from the Super Mario franchise.

Revisiting Princess Peach

On August of 2013, I wrote a blog entry on Princess Peach, where I made the argument that she isn't so much an object for Mario to rescue as much as she is a fairly realistic depiction of a brave woman in a hostage situation. A link here: http://vidgameanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/08/princess-peach-versus-feminism-is.html. However, when I shared that blog with a Facebook group I've long since abandoned, I was accused of being sexist, idiotic, and cherry picking. In hindsight, I should have really known better than to share a blog entry with a Facebook group that had become little more than an echo chamber for Third Wave feminism, atheism, and champagne socialism, but hindsight is 20/20. However, a mod from that group said something that had stuck in me ever since: "I didn't find much argument." And I asked myself, did I really make an argument? Since then, I've taken many moments to read and re-read my entry, and I said to myself "I can do better." And that's what today's blog is all about: a second analysis of Princess Peach and her role in the Mario games.

Is Super Mario World really that good?

It's often called one of the best Mario games ever, and considering Mario is THE best selling franchise in the world, that's saying a lot. This is one of the games that helped codify just what the Super Nintendo was capable of: bright colors, fast gameplay, less glitching, clear sound, and more detailed graphics than the NES or the Genesis. But today we need to ask ourselves a tough question: is Super Mario World really THAT good?

The top 11 video game heroes- Number 7

Carrying on with this countdown, we celebrate today a real icon. This character is, when you get right down to it, a re telling of the classical archetype of the Knight in Shining Armor, crossing the deepest valleys, climbing the most dangerous mountains, and fighting off a wicked dragon, all to save this lady love, the Princess. This character has entertained millions the world over for over thirty years. His name is practically synonymous with video games! In fact, even people that have never even picked up a controller in their lives know who this character is! This brave Italian plumber, who has traveled all across the Mushroom Kingdom in order to save Princess Peach, has fought Bowser numerous times...I'm not talking about Mario, by the way. I'm talking about his little brother, Luigi.

Princess Peach versus feminism- is the Princess as bad as they claim?

Feminists hate her. She's the quintessential damsel in distress. She's weak, can't fight very well, extremely girly, blonde, and wears a lot of pink. She's Princess Peach. 

And upon seeing this, the feminists reading my blog have just puked in their mouths.

We've all heard the criticisms. "Peach is anti feminist because she has no character", "Peach is the ultimate example of a weak woman." To be sure, no one can ever claim that Peach is a feminist icon. When you get down to it, Peach is a distressed damsel, someone that needs to be rescued (constantly). You can make the claim that this is harmful to women in gaming, and honestly, that's not entirely wrong. A character that is constantly getting kidnapped does seem weak, and to have her be not just a female, but also the major female character in a series that otherwise lacks them, it doesn't look good. But! We also need to take a step back and look at things from a wider perspective.