Nintendo’s signature damsel in distress, Mario’s love interest, ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, might be the most famous woman in the world (or maybe just in video game history) next to Britney Spears; Except Bowser doesn’t try to kidnap Britney Spears and Luigi doesn’t secretly want to date her.
Princess Peach and her attendant Toad often reside in a castle our hero/heroes must explore in the Mario Games. Her signature pink dress and tiny crown make her immediately recognizable in the Mario Franchise.
When away from her Mushroom Kingdom castle, you can find her tearing up the roads in Mario Kart as a playable character.
In later games, she would brawl in Super Smash Bros and party with the boys of the Super Mario world in the aptly named Mario Party series. From the SNES to the Nintendo 64, the Nintendo DS, up to the Nintendo Switch, Princess Peach has been on them all. Her own title, Super Princess Peach, was on the DS.
Eventually, she would often opt to drop “Princess” from her name entirely, going simply by “Peach.” (This is how she signed her letter at the beginning of Super Mario 64.)
The female characters that cross paths with the Mario Brothers tend to be based on Princess Peach’s damsel in distress, princess archetype. Even if they aren’t in distress, Princess Daisy and Rosalina are pretty close to reskins, right?
Princess Peach’s Age
So how old is Princess Peach exactly? Toad scientists across the Mushroom Kingdom just aren’t sure. Is her implied relationship with the Italian plumber, Mario, even appropriate?
From her first appearance ’til now, her age nor her actual relationship status has not been explicitly revealed.
How Old Is Princess Peach?
There is a general consensus among internet Mario Franchise and Nintendo fans that Peach was around 15/16 years old when she made her first appearance in Super Mario Bros in 1985.
This puts her in league with other damsels in distress like Rapunzel; it does not explain, however, why Bowser wants to kidnap her nigh constantly. If she continued to age from then on, she would be almost 40 now.
Since the Mario games are not terribly plot-dense, tracking narrative stuff like timeline, age, and relationships doesn’t make much sense.
There are other angles to consider when Mario and Luigi are speculated to be in their 30s. Hmmm. We may be overthinking the Mario Brothers series. It’s not that deep. As I said, Shigeru Miyamoto has never revealed that Peach dated Mario OR Bowser. For consistency’s sake, Peach is around 30 years old. This age puts her in the same ballpark and the brothers.
Nintendo is just making fun iconic platformers (and others); don’t read too hard into it.