[15] Donkey Kong established Pauline's role as the female character who is rescued by Mario and appears as the damsel in distress in subsequent games.

[16] Miyamoto later said that Donkey Kong had been designed for arcades, which were frequented by male gamers, so Nintendo did not consider making a character that would be playable by girls.

[18] Following the debut of Waluigi in Mario Tennis, an evil version of Peach named "Walupeach" was pitched by Shugo Takahashi, co-founder of Camelot Software Planning, but the concept was rejected by Miyamoto before seeing the design, saying that it would be "just like Doronjo" from the Yatterman anime series.

[36] Although she has appeared in a variety of outfits, Peach typically wears her pink princess dress with puffy sleeves combined with long white gloves.

[45] Peach made her debut as Princess Toadstool in the 1985 platform game Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

The story involves Bowser (named King Koopa) kidnapping her and hiding her in one of eight dungeons, necessitating Mario and Luigi to find and rescue her.

Mario embarks on a quest that involves navigating through several locations to save Dinosaur Land from the Koopalings before rescuing the princess from Bowser.

[65] The game involves Mario and Luigi traveling through platform levels, collecting coins, and fighting bosses to save the princess.

[67] The plot involves Bowser and his Koopalings taking Princess Peach hostage and Mario and friends making their way to the center of Mushroom Kingdom to save her.

[70] Although not initially planned to appear in the 2013 Wii U video game Super Mario 3D World, Peach was suggested by producer Yoshiaki Koizumi.

[75] In the mobile game Super Mario Run (2016), Peach is one of several playable characters and is unlocked following the completion of the World Tour mode.

[91] In Mario Strikers: Battle League (2022) Peach is one of the ten playable characters, each of whom can perform a unique move called a Hyper Strike.

[113] In the second entry, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (2005), the brothers must save Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom from being conquered by the evil Shroobs by traveling between the past and the present.

After being unlocked at the end of World 2, Peach is also a playable character and carries a short-range shotgun called a boomshot and tosses grenades at enemies.

Ultimate, her fighting moves include using Toad as a shield, jumping upwards and using her parasol to float down, and her final smash, Peach Blossom.

[131] In May 2016, a Super Mario Mash Up Pack released as downloadable content for the Wii U edition of Minecraft featured Peach as one of 12 skins used as playable Nintendo characters.

[134] She features as a playable guest character alongside Mario and Luigi in the GameCube versions of the Electronic Arts games NBA Street V3 and SSX on Tour.

[143] Director Aaron Horvath said that Luigi became the victim Mario must save, to substitute Peach's traditional role in video games as the damsel in distress, so she can remain a strong monarch and protector of the Toads.

[145] A song from the film, which was titled "Peaches" and written and performed by Bowser voice actor Jack Black, was released in April 2023.

"[158] SyFy also described Peach as one of the "greatest video game heroines of all time" for being a tough female character that "embraces the power of being a high femme".

"[162] In an article about the impact of princesses on girls, Peggy Orenstein of The New York Times said that she loved Peach but noted that "her peachiness did nothing to upset the apple cart of expectation".

[164] Peter Tieryas, writer of Kotaku, considered Peach to be the best character in Super Mario Bros. 2 and emphasized that her floating ability was the first of Nintendo's solutions for fine-tuning jumping in platform games.

[165] Matt Kamen of Wired appreciated the plot of Super Mario Sunshine for having "a bit more impetus to a game than 'rescue Peach (again)'" and felt that this offered more depth and personality to the characters.

He commented that Peach "shrugs off all those years of being the damsel in distress to forge her own path in the world as a single woman" and that in doing so Nintendo was clearly recognizing its female fanbase.

[174][175][176] Ashley Bardhan of Eurogamer said that, rather than casting Peach in her usual role of Bowser's victim, the game made her a "girl with some agency" and thought that her future was "no longer doomed with dead-end kidnapping" but now had limitless potential.

[177] Los Angeles Times' writer, Tracy Brown, said that Peach started out as an unappealing character due to being simply a princess waiting to be rescued but was given more personality in later games.

She further remarked that The Super Mario Bros. Movie incarnation had subverted her characteristics by depicting an empowered ruler who is capable of engaging in battle and protecting her subjects without it being at the expense of her femininity.

[178] Christian Holub of Entertainment Weekly responded positively to Peach's characterization in the film, calling her "a female protagonist for the Rey generation" but also a relatable character for older players.

[180] By contrast, Julia Glassman of The Mary Sue considered her film incarnation to be a common sexist trope where the badass female character must step aside for an average male by supporting and training him rather than taking the lead.

[189] In May 2021, in an episode of Saturday Night Live, Grimes dressed as Princess Peach, while host Elon Musk starred as Wario in a sketch in which he was put on trial for murdering Mario in a kart race.