Princess Peach is notorious for filling the role of the victim, often to the usual kidnapping antics of Bowser, enemy to Mario, Luigi, and of course, Peach herself. Throughout the years, Nintendo’s character, Princess Peach, has played the role of the victim well, continually being kidnapped, waiting patiently for Mario and Luigi to struggle through world after world of Super Mario Bros., to finally reach Bowser's henchmen, only to lose her again, and repeat the process. It seems to be the never-ending Nintendo cycle, with Peach hardly seeing the light of day, trapped in Bowser's dungeons. Prior to Nintendo’s introduction of Super Princess Peach, it was always difficult to find a true female heroine, who took control of her life, and for once engaged in the rescue process, instead of constantly being the rescued (at least in the realm of Nintendo). Shortly after Nintendo launched their DS consoles, Super Princess Peach became available, finally offering a Nintendo narrative in which Peach was in control of her fate, and the fate of others, too. This first installment of the ENGL 392B essay will focus primarily on Nintendo’s efforts to rebrand and symbolize Princess Peach and femininity within the gaming genre through image, text, colour, audiencing, and the difficulties faced by epistemological and ontological framing, and of Nintendo, and games in general, being non-canonized sources of semiotic cultural change and symbolism.
The cover of the Super Princess Peach game can leave any potential gamer in doubt, as the roles have been reversed, and Peach appears as she has in many Nintendo games before – pretty in pink. As figure 1.1 shows below, Peach has not changed in appearance, still wearing her ultra feminine pink, puffy “princess” dress, white gloves, and of course, her jeweled crown. Nothing about Peach’s appearance allows for the audience to imagine that Peach is ready for any sort of adventure, least of all her expression. Her eyes are slanted toward the right, apparently focused on Mario, tied up, captive of a warrior Koopa Troopa, with her mouth forming a perfect “O”, her hand raised as if gesturing to cover her surprise at the situation she has found herself in, demonstrating a lack of confidence in her ability to rescue Mario from Bowser’s clutches. The bead of sweat rolling down Mario’s brow, his raised eyebrows, and the look of distress in his eyes mirrors Peach’s lack of confidence, which raises the question of whether or not Peach can handle her newly found role of heroine and “bad-girl”. Nintendo is testing the waters while they renegotiate Princess Peach’s image under a process of audiencing (Rose 22) in order to determine whether the gaming community (those who played the traditional Nintendo Super Mario Bros. and those who have not) will accept the newly constructed symbol of Peach being presented. Despite the fact that her appearance has not changed, Nintendo has begun to change Peach’s role drastically, modifying Peach as a previous symbol of complacent, kidnapped princess, to brave, heroine, ready to fight the evils of Bowser.
The blue, yellow and pink hues used in the cover art of Super Princess Peach reveals that despite the switch in Peach’s role, her character will still maintain her innocent, fun-loving, princess demeanour (Rose 41). While the saturation of the blue, yellow and pink is not high, it is not low, remaining in limbo, much like Peach’s role. The hues and saturation of blue, yellow and pink reiterate that Peach’s character will not give up her role as innocent victim, a “girly-girl” princess, but will maintain it, while she navigates her role as heroine.
While Nintendo uses colouration and image site to convey their stance on maintaining an image of absolute femininity for Peach’s character, it is equally important to “… understan[d] not only its representation of femininity, but its construction of masculinity too” (Rose 9). Nintendo is creating an image and situation in which it is acceptable to be a delicate, feminine, emotional woman, while still engaging in the role of heroine, fighting the bad guys as they come, and rescuing the man. Nintendo is creating a world in which it is possible to wear pink, gloves, and jewellery while still embracing a strong, female role.
Although Nintendo is making it clear that Peach’s character will not jeopardize femininity in light of becoming a heroine, the hues and saturation used for the Super Princess Peach cover are harmonious, assuring the audience that Princess Peach will remain her delicate, princess self, while fighting Bowser and saving Mario. Nintendo is trying to convey that there will be no disconnect between the qualities of femininity Peach’s character previously embraced, and her new found heroism and bravery, but that these seemingly contrasting qualities can exist harmoniously within Peach, and perhaps, within any female. Femininity and heroism are no longer mutually exclusive.
After turning the case over, a new, and unexpected Peach is revealed, which can be seen in image below. The small image of four hearts; one gold, blue, pink and green, demonstrate Peach’s emotional super powers, though not to the extent which the gamer will discover upon entering the first world, Ladida Plains, of Vibe Island. As the cover adequately explains, it’s time for “Princess Power!” since now “… it’s up to Peach and her magical umbrella to save them”. The small, corner image of Peach’s magical umbrella also leaves the audience wondering how Peach will manage to rescue Mario and Luigi, while simultaneously freeing the many Toads that have been kidnapped with her emotional “vibes”, and her magical umbrella. Though the case itself appears to sell Peach and her potential short, she is capable of more than just “… channel[ing] … emotional vibes into special abilities. Float[ing] when she’s happy, burn[ing] through walls when she’s mad, or mak[ing] vegetation grow with her tears”.
Once you start moving through Ladida Plains on Vibe Island, Peach’s “true” colours start to reveal themselves, as the gamer is forced to explore the possibilities of her gendered emotions of anger, happiness, tears, and the yellow heart, which allows her to morph into a cyclone of destruction. In the image below, the pink heart clearly expresses anger, the green heart happiness, the blue heart sadness, it’s unclear what Nintendo intended when designing the open mouthed, exasperated face of the yellow heart to signify. When Peach turns into a cyclone/whirlwind, Peach appears to be determined to succeed, despite the fluster of her appearance. When encountering a toxic, yellow cloud blocking her path to save a Toad, all Peach needs to do is morph into her yellow heart whirlwind, and blunder (albeit, a graceful blunder) through the obstacle to her goal. If something is too high for her to leap or float to, Peach only needs to summon her yellow fluster of emotion to achieve any height (provided her vibe meter does not run out).
Peach’s emotional vibe powers replicate the traditional and typically female gendered reactions to not only daily situations, but also during menstruation. The surge of hormones that women experience during their cycle each month are in many ways mirrored in Peach’s vibe powers. At any given moment, women are characterized as being capable of extreme anger, then happiness, followed by overwhelming sadness, to a fluster of an often-indescribable frenzy of emotions. Despite the fact that Peach has been cast in the role of heroine, Nintendo is careful to maintain her highly “feminine” image, as dictated not only by her past roles and representations in Nintendo games, but also the idealized feminine image and reactions of Western culture. The way in which the gamer has the control to activate Peach’s vibe emotions with a simple tap of the DS stylus, and then, with a similar tap, turn them off, also reflects a stereotyped image of women as rash, unpredictable beings.
However, Nintendo’s assertion over female emotion, femininity, and heroism can be troubling, as well. When keeping in mind issues of truth and reliability, especially when cultural assertions are being made by a non-canonical source, such as Nintendo, the blurring of epistemological and ontological frames that Kress discusses in his text, Multimodality (Kress 908 – 918-26, Kindle edition), come to light in Nintendo’s attempt to rebrand, symbolize and contextualize Peach’s identity. The ability for the audience to accept Nintendo’s concept of a shared sense of classic femininity and emotion with feminine bravery and heroism may be difficult, as it does not come from a recognized academic or canonized source, blurring boundaries of genre between what was previously accepted as a form of leisure/entertainment, to an artefact that can now be studied semiotically (Kress 918 – 926, Kindle edition). However, depending on the audience, this newly designed image of Peach and femininity within video games could become widely accepted. A female audience engaging in the world of Vibe Island as Princess Peach, would trust Nintendo’s characterization of a strong, brave, feminine role – a woman who is able to maintain her femininity (if it is desired) while still embracing, what is otherwise typically male in the realm of games, the role of a warrior and hero. The male gamer may receive Super Princess Peach as an innovation, and invitation to introduce females to the world of gaming, allowing a broader audience within not only the realm of Nintendo, but other consoles as well. Or, he could scoff at Nintendo’s attempt to characterize Peach in a heroic light. However, the same could not be said of a purely academic audience, one with very little gaming experience, in what was prior to the creation and personalization of Super Princess Peach, a largely masculine domain, may not understand or value Nintendo’s attempt to restructure and qualify the female role not only within a gaming society, but within Western culture, as well.
Although video game culture is becoming more and more recognized within academic circles, the overall multimodal and semiotic affects of video games have remained largely untouched. The issue of video games being non-canonized sources, and largely existing for the purpose of entertainment, isolate them from the realm of semiotic analysis and interpretation. In the following installments of this essay, issues of text, image, colour, layout and narrative will be explored, to better understand not only the changing character of Princess Peach, but also the changes that are taking place to accommodate the feminine within the realm of Nintendo gaming.
Works Cited
Kress, Gunther. Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. Kindle edition, December 5, 2009.
Nintendo DS Game Cover of Super Princess Peach. June 17, 2011. Personal photograph by author. JPEG file.
Nintendo DS Game Back Cover of Super Princess Peach. June 17, 2011.Personal photograph by author. JPEG file.
Nintendo DS Screen Shot of Ladida Plains Level. June 17, 2011. Personal photograph by author. JPEG file.
Nintendo DS Screen Shot Peach Anger Vibe. June 17, 2011. Personal photograph by author. JPEG file.
Nintendo DS Screen Shot Peach Crying Vibe. June 17, 2011. Personal photograph by author. JPEG file.
Princess Peach Head Shot. June 20, 2011. Source: http://mario-peach-guides.blogspot.com/2011/04/princess-peach.html. JPEG file.
Princess Peach Head Shot. June 20, 2011. Source: http://mario-peach-guides.blogspot.com/2011/04/princess-peach.html. JPEG file.
Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies. London, Sage Publications Inc., 2007.
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