I HEART CHAOS

It’s hard to believe that of the hundreds of Mario titles that have come out since the 1980s, Mario himself is almost always the only playable character. Luigi has had his moments and in offshoot titles like Mario Tennis or Golf or whatever-the-shit, you can play as Peach or Toad or Wario or Bowser, but as far as the main line of platformers themselves, it’s always Mario and sometimes Luigi. Finally in the upcoming Super Mario 3D World for Wii U, players will be able to play as Princess Peach for the first time since Super Mario Bros in 1988. 

Her inclusion is no casual toss-in. The developers consciously made sure to include her– Yoshiaki Koizumi, the producer of the game, said in an interview with Polygon:

I feel like Mario games, as you know, have done lots of representation of male characters over the years, perhaps much more so than female — so it’s actually really nice to be able to have a female playable character in the game.

Female characters in games are a nice inclusion, but for me, it’s about variety. I know that Super Mario Bros 2 was kind of a weird remake of another game, but when it came out, I remember being excited that they might take the franchise in a whole new direction, one where a variety of Mushroom Kingdom characters would be playable with different abilities that affected how you played the game. 

Nope. That was a one-off and then it was all Mario all the time, collecting suits and bullshit. Welcome back, Princess Peach.

Via