Princess Peach is a character in Nintendo's Mario franchise. She was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and introduced in the 1985 original Super Mario Bros. game as Princess Toadstool. She is the princess regnant and head of state of the Mushroom Kingdom, where she resides in her castle along with Toads. Since her debut, she has appeared in the majority of Mario video games as the main female character and the romantic interest of Mario.
As the lead female character in the Super Mario series, Peach's role is typically the damsel in distress who is kidnapped by the main series antagonist, Bowser. In most of the games, her role is to be a captive until she is eventually rescued by Mario. In several multiplayer games of the series, she is a playable character, such as Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Outside the series, she has appeared as the protagonist and player character of several video games, including Princess Toadstool's Castle Run, Super Princess Peach, and Princess Peach: Showtime! She makes regular appearances as a playable character in Mario spin-offs and other video game series, including Mario Sports games, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Paper Mario, and the fighting game series Super Smash Bros.