Princess Daisy has always lived in the shadow of Nintendo’s main princess, Princess Peach. It’s a shame since this bouncy, flower-loving princess is memorable in her own right. Let’s take a look at how Daisy has managed to stay relevant despite how Nintendo tends to use her as a filler character.
Princess Daisy’s Unusual Debut
Princess Daisy made her debut with the Game Boy. She first appeared in Super Mario Land, a Game Boy launch title. The game involved Mario traveling to the kingdom of Sarasaland and rescuing its princess from Tatanga. Interestingly, Daisy and Mario appear to be romantically involved in this game, even though Peach had already been established as Mario’s love interest. This storyline would expand in the Super Mario Kodansha manga, the first volume of which featured a love triangle between Mario, Daisy, and Peach.
Daisy would go on to be a major character in the manga, making frequent appearances. She even ended up sacrificing herself to save the world, and her body became a bunch of spores. However, the spores grew into tiny versions of Daisy, showing that she wasn’t truly dead after all.
A Sports Gal
A semi-forgotten sports game was actually Daisy’s first console appearance. In the NES game, NES Open Tournament Golf, she is Luigi’s caddy, which could have been the beginning of people seeing her as Luigi’s love interest. Her first role as a playable character was in the Nintendo 64 game Mario Tennis, where she was a spunky tennis player. She would also have playable roles in other sports series, such as Mario Golf and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. In addition, Daisy would gradually become playable in other spin-off series such as Mario Party and Super Smash Bros. Still, decades passed without her being playable in a mainline game.
Movie Star
While Daisy’s playable roles were limited to spin-off series for many years, she surprisingly appeared on the big screen three decades before Princess Peach. In the 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. movie, the lead female star was Daisy instead of Peach. In that movie, Daisy was revealed to be a reptile-human hybrid from another dimension where dinosaurs evolved to be the dominant species. She was good in a fight, and she had a budding romance with Luigi. However, when 2023’s animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released, Daisy was absent. Perhaps she will have a role in the upcoming sequel.
A Mainline Star At Last
Princess Daisy was an unlockable playable character in the mobile game Super Mario Run, but it wasn’t until 2023’s Super Mario Wonder when Princess Daisy finally got a playable role in a mainline Mario console game. It took thirty-four years for Daisy to be allowed to go running and jumping with the other Mario characters in a mainline console game. So, what does the future hold for this underrated princess? Since Princess Peach got her own games on the DS and the Nintendo Switch, maybe the Nintendo Switch 2 era will finally be Princess Daisy’s time to shine in her own game.
