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Ryan Woodrow joined Newsweek as a contributing writer in 2024, based in London, England. He has an expert knowledge in video games and pop culture, with a wealth of experience creating detailed game guides and reviews. He graduated from Staffordshire University with a first-class degree in Games Studies and has previously written for USA Today’s ForTheWin, The Sun, Men’s Journal, Game Rant, Parade, NewsAU, and ESPN. You can contact him at r.woodrow@newsweek.com and follow him on X @SStylesmark or Bluesky @strongstylesmark.bsky.social. Languages: English.
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Despite being a classic pairing in the world of gaming, it seems that Mario and Princess Peach’s relationship isn’t as romantic as you might think. While many Mario games end with Peach giving Mario kiss on the cheek or baking him a nice cake, Nintendo confirmed via a post on the Nintendo Today App that the two are in fact just “good friends who help each other out whenever they can”.
They’re not the only Nintendo couple to receive this confusion. With The Legend of Zelda movie cast announcement confirming a 21-year-old and a 16-year-old for Zelda and Link, respectively, people were concerned about what that meant for how the pair’s relationship will be portrayed on-screen. However, despite this, the two of them have rarely been portrayed as having an explicitly romantic bond.
Instead, it seems Nintendo is keen on keeping the relationships between its male and female leads strictly platonic, likely to help maintain some consistency between the various branches of media that it is now reaching out into. The Super Mario Movie stayed away from a romantic storyline between Mario and Peach, so it makes sense that the games should stay the same way.
That being said, it’s still weird that the Mario cast is still happy to go around playing tennis and go-kart racing with Bowser, despite all he’s done.
