Peach (SSBM)

Peach in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	Mario
Other playable appearances	in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Tier	S (6)

“	A princess with royal recovery abilities.	”
—Melee's instruction manual

Announced at E3 2001, Peach (ピーチ, Pīchi) is a starter character in Super Smash Bros. Melee and it was her first appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series.

Currently, Peach is 6th in the S tier. Her float cancel gives her a fantastic aerial game, and she can play mindgames by using Toad. Peach also is a good chaingrabber, which is particularly useful against higher tiered characters. She is also the owner of one of the best projectiles in the game. Additionally, Peach's recovery is among the best in the game, with many options available to her, allowing her to recover at almost any angle. However, Peach's primary flaw is her light weight and floatiness, which makes her more susceptible to KOs, especially on the upper blast lines. Additionally, her slow dash and weak ground attacks, save for her down smash, impairs her approach while on the ground.

Attributes

One of the most well-known features of Peach is likely the fact that she has incredible horizontal recovery. With fast air speed, a long second jump, the ability to float, the ability to use Peach Bomber to cover horizontal distance, and the ability to use Peach Parasol to cover vertical distance, Peach can recover from just about anywhere off of the stage. Peach also has a great air game because she has little lag for aerials with float cancels, and she is capable of double-jump canceling, allowing for very quick ground aerials. Peach's projectile, the turnip, is excellent for camping, lead ins, and edgeguarding. Peach can defend herself from opponents' projectiles using Toad as a pop-up, similar to Marth and Roy's counter. Peach is also able to chain grab fast-fallers with her up throw from around 40% damage to 100% damage.

However, Peach has very slow dash speed. She dies vertically at relatively low percentages due to her being floaty, somewhat light, and having a bad vertical recovery. Her wavedash is among the shortest in the game. When it comes to KOing, Peach's forward throw is powerful. Her down smash is also powerful and has great speed, range, and shield wrecking abilities, but Peach still lacks a move that KOs at low percentages which forces her to rack up damage and edgeguard for kills.

Moveset

Peach's aerial attacks

For a gallery of Peach's hitboxes, see here.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		Royal Slap	1-3%	Slaps the opponent twice. The first hit is usually used to start combos.
			1-2%
Forward tilt		Can-Can Kick	3-13%	Does a 180 degree kick. Capable of seriously juggling heavies at low percentages if they lose their second jump. Can KO opponents above 120%.
Up tilt		Crown Bash	6-12%	Bashes her crown upwards. Does not have much combo potential, but can be followed up by correctly spaced aerials and Peach Parasol.
Down tilt		Elegant Sweep	6-12%	Sweeps the ground with her arm and hand. It meteor smashes if the opponent hits her forearm and not her hand. The meteor smash is usually used over the ledge against aerial or recovering opponents. The meteor can KO grounded opponents under 150%. This meteor smash is moderately difficult to land on aerial opponents because of its small hitbox and can only be used effectively over a ledge to KO. Whether this attack is sweetspotted or sourspotted on grounded opponents, it has good combo potential, as it can set up floating aerial strings.
Dash attack		Lady Push	3-12%	Called "the push" by most competitive players, the attack makes Peach lunge forward and split her hands apart. Good for juggling opponents at low damage percentages, and makes for a fantastic combo starter, as it can be follow up by all her aerials, up tilt, and even Peach Parasol for flashy plays. It can also set up her up throw chaingrab. Overall, an integral move in Peach's competitive metagame.
Forward smash		Peach Swing	17-23% (frying pan), 12-16% (tennis racket), 13-17% (golf club)	Swings one of the following. Damage and knockback vary with each weapon, though all three possess very low knockback. Frying pan - Strongest of the three, KOing at about 120%. Sends opponents upwards. Tennis racket - Weakest of the three, uncharged hit does not KO until ridiculously high percentages. Good for edgeguarding. Golf club - Sweetspot at tip is somewhat powerful, KOing at 130% if fully charged. Sourspot, however, will not KO until over 200% regardless of charge. Good for edgeguarding.
Up smash		Pirouette	8-25%	Quick upwards slap. If sweetspotted (located her palm and her hand), the attack sends opponent upward with high vertical knockback. If sourspotted (located her shoulders and her finger), the move has weak vertical knockback. When sweetspotted, this move can KO opponents at around 73% when fully charged. When sourspotted, it can combo into an aerial attack against fastfallers at high percentages.
Down smash		Double-Edged Gown	6-95%	Spins around to the ground, multiple hits. This move has extremely high horizontal knockback if it is fully charged and multiple hits land. If the opponent is above 100% it has moderate horizontal knockback scaling since it deals only one hit on opponent, but it can KO at high percentage if first hit landed. Deals more damage, if the opponent attempts to crouch cancel or two metal opponents is very close to Peach. Multiple hits are semi-spikes. Most damaging move in Melee. Can be used to shield stab opponents. When fully charged and multiple hits land, this move can KO opponents at low percentage under 20% due to the very powerful semi-spike. Multiple hits cannot hit opponents above 100%.
Neutral aerial		Princess Twirl	4-14%	Twirls in the air. Can KO at high percentage. Good OoS option because of its speed (frame 2).
Forward aerial		Crown Smack	8-15%	Bashes her crown in front of her for huge knockback. It is arguably her best aerial for KOing. If spaced correctly, a float canceled, falling fair can combo into a dash attack.
Back aerial		Flying Hip	5-14%	Bashes her hip backwards for good knockback. Has passable power for it to be a finisher. Good OoS option.
Up aerial		Floating High Kick	7-14%	A quick kick at an upwards angle. Can KO opponents at above 110%.
Down aerial		Stiletto Kick	1-11%	Kicks downward four times. Good combo starter but deals low damage and produces barely any knockback. This attack's hitboxes push the opponent upward and can easily set up a KO from a neutral aerial, forward aerial, or back aerial depending opponent's DI.
Grab		{{{grabname}}}	—	{{{grabdesc}}}
Pummel		Heel Stomp	1-3% per pummel	Stomps opponent with foot.
Forward throw		Royal Slap	1-10%	Slaps the foe in front of her for big knockback. Strongest forward throw in the game.
Back throw		Iron Hip	6-11%	Puts opponent behind her and hits them with her hip. The throw can KO opponents above 170% if used near the edge.
Up throw		Gut Punch	4-9%	Pushes the opponent forcing them up. Can chaingrab characters with moderate to floaty falling speeds at 0%. Fastfallers must be around 40% damage in order to chain grab this way. She can finish with an up smash or an aerial.
Down throw		The Royal Treatment	3-7%	Puts opponent down and sits on them. Can chaingrab floaty characters, heavyweights and fastfallers at high percentages.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Swirls herself around in a similar fashion to Mario's down smash.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Swirls herself around in a similar fashion to Mario's down smash.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			6%	Launches herself off the ledge to a short distance on the stage, rear first.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			10%	Somewhat slowly gets up and swirls her foot in a 360° motion in front of herself, similar to Mario's down smash, only much weaker and less range.
Neutral special		Toad	18% maximum	Holds a Toad in front of herself, being a counterattack. When an attack hits Toad, he will fire spores at the opponent, with the spores having the same knockback regardless of the attack countered. The spores themselves can be absorbed. Compared to moves such as Fox's Reflector and Marth's Counter, it is somewhat laggy.
Side special		Peach Bomber		Lunges forward. If Peach hits opponent, it will produce an explosion and knock them away.
Up special		Peach Parasol		Jumps upward while holding her parasol, a recovery move. Her parasol allows her to descend very slowly (similarly to the Parasol item), and it is possible to put the parasol down at any time to fast fall - it is even possible to put the parasol back up. The parasol itself does slash damage. Can be used as a followup to an up tilt and dash attack.
Down special		Vegetable	Varies	Pulls out a vegetable, which can be used as a projectile.

Vegetable damages

• Normal - 6%
• Circle Eyes - 6%
• Line Eyes - 6%
• Carrot Eyes - 6%
• Eyebrow Eyes - 6%
• Wink - 10%
• Dot Eyes - 16%
• Stitch Face ("Gaddish") - 34%
• Peach can also pull out a Bob-omb, Beam Sword or Mr. Saturn, although the odds of doing so are 1:300.

Taunt

Peach performs a spin, then poses and winks. She says "Sweet!" after performing this taunt.

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

Notable players

See also: Category:Peach professionals (SSBM)

•  Armada
•  Bladewise
•  Cort
•  DoH
•  Excel_Zero
•  Hanky Panky
•  MacD
•  Mew2King
•  Mikael
•  Pink Shinobi
•  Silly Kyle
•  VaNz
•  Vidjogamer
•  Vwins
•  Wife

Tier placement and history

Thanks to Peach's great aerial potential and combo ability, as well as her powerful mindgames, she has been a character consistently ranking in the top tiers of the Melee tier list. However, as time progressed, Armada became the only Smasher who was able to win money from large tournaments with Peach, with all other Peach players being rather lackluster and falling short of the top 8. After Armada's retirement, representation of Peach in tournaments has still been ubiquitous, with many pre-top 8 placements, but dedicated Peach players have seldom been able to win money. Peach is still ranked in the top tier at 6th place, however, and remains very potentially powerful.

Melee techniques

Wall Bombing

Wall Bombing is more difficult than it may readily appear. The player can't be too close to the stage to initiate the Wall Bomb and the Peach Bomber must be smashed each time or they will simply be unable to reach the stage. To initiate the follow-up Wall Bomb, the player must start it immediately after they recover from the previous Peach Bomber. Using this tactic is very risky in tournament play and should be only used as a last resort. Though it is possible to perform on any stage with a thick base, the player will usually only see this technique employed on Final Destination.

Peach is one of the few characters that can do any sort of lengthy stalling; the player can stall with her float, her up special, her neutral special, or by using her side special (Peach Bomber) to hit the wall of the stage. With the Peach Bomber, the player can actually move up a wall or stall indefinitely; this tactic (Wall Bombing to stall) is banned in tournament play.

Advanced techniques

• Chainthrowing - Peach, like most characters in the game, can chainthrow fastfallers. She can do it by Up-Throwing them between 23-30% and 80-90% and then re-grabbing them. (Note: The lower percentages apply to Fox/Falco, while Chainthrowing Captain Falcon requires him to be closer to 30%) Beyond 80-something% for Fox and Captain Falcon and closer to 90% for Falco, the opponent can DI, wiggle, and/or Shine out of the chain.
• Downthrow into ... - If an opponent DI's upward, expecting a Forward Throw, the player can chain grab them with their Down-Throw, they can even chain more floaty characters with it. Peach can also has many more options out of her down throw, she can forward tilt them, Dash Attack them (regardless of DI), Neutral Air them, or even Up Smash them. Characters with little stun can DI, wiggle, and Neutral Air out of this, though, but usually, the player can just trade hits with them, with attack of their own. It is however, dangerous to Down Throw characters like Luigi, who have very strong Neutral Airs.
• If the player Dash Attacks a fast-falling character at around 40-60%, they can follow his or her DI—if there is any—with a grab, which can be followed up into a chaingrab.
• When an opponent is grabbed by another character, the player can make his or her victim suffer the torturous damage of an entire Down Smash by spacing it so that every single hit of the Down Smash hits the victim but not the person grabbing him or her.
• Peach's double-jump allows her to Double-Jump Cancel, sacrificing her second jump but immediately moving toward the ground by first jumping (or at least being airborne), starting an aerial and immediately jumping again. This subsequently allows her to:
• Double-Jump Land - Because Peach's double-jump makes her dip downward slightly before moving upward, she can DJC and DJL along with Yoshi. To DJL, hit jump and then, during the 4-or-5 start-up frames (depending upon whether it was a Short Hop or a full jump), hit jump again. Peach will do a little jerk as if jumping; the sound effect of her double-jump will play and she will immediately go into her landing animation. By doing this repeatedly, Peach will do a series of funny rapid jerks, thus allowing the player to mindgame opponents.
• When people are recovering from a small distance away slightly below the edge, the player can, while hanging onto the ledge, hit Back to drop and perform a falling Back Air. Once it is over, double-jump immediately into an up special to grab the ledge again. Anyone hit by the Back Air will be unable to recover—unless, of course, the opponent is Samus, Jigglypuff, or Link/Young Link on a stage with a low surface into which they can Hookshot.

Vidjo-dropping and Vidjo-canceling

It had been known for years that Peach could drop a turnip while floating, maintain her float, throw a turnip as soon as a floated aerial ended, and stop floating but it was not until late 2005 that American Peach Vidjogamer discovered how this was done. For this, Australian Peach Quetzalcoatl named it the Vidjo-cancel and relayed the information to, among others, Swedish Peach Yuna, who coined the term "Vidjo-drop" and explored the use of both.

In order to understand the Vidjo-drop and the Vidjo-cancel, one must have an understanding of interruptibility. While floating, perform an aerial and then hit either Z during the IASA frames of said aerial to do a Vidjo-drop or A (direction options) for a Vidjo-cancel.

Vidjo-dropping will allow the user to do things such as down aerialing into a Kamikaze Vidjo-drop bomb-drop or turnip-drop into another aerial; likewise, performing a Vidjo-cancel will allow the user to do things such as neutral-airing into a turnip throw or down aerialing into a turnip throw (the latter is especially useful if the vegetable in question is a grandfather/stitchface turnip). The player can also down air while barely hitting the opponent, perform a Vidjo-drop bomb-drop and immediately airdodge to avoid the ensuing explosion (though this technique is easily countered by airdodging by people who often airdodge after a down air from Peach in the hopes that she mistimes the follow-up or that they can simply shield it if they are on the ground).

The Vidjo-drop and Vidjo-cancel do have their limitations, however. Because of the (nonexistent) amount of stun in Peach's attacks, a Down air into a Vidjo-cancel or even a Vidjo-drop can be shielded as long as the person hit by the down air is not launched off the ground by it—which, unfortunately, requires high percentages. Vidjo-dropping will also allow characters with little stun (all of the floaty characters) to Neutral Air out of stun or just airdodge.

In Single Player Modes

In Classic Mode

Peach can appear in one-on-one battles, as an ally, on a team with Bowser, Mario, Ness, or Zelda, or as a metal opponent. Peach is fought on Battlefield when on a team with Bowser or in the metal battle, otherwise she's fought on Princess Peach's Castle or on Mushroom Kingdom II.

In Adventure Mode

Peach appears in the second portion of Stage 1 along with Mario or Luigi, fought on Princess Peach's Castle.

In All-Star Mode

Peach and her allies are fought on Princess Peach's Castle

In Event Matches

Peach appears in the following event matches:

• Event 10: All-Star Match 1: Peach is the fourth of five opponents the player must fight in this series of staged battles. The player's character battles her on the Princess Peach's Castle stage, and their character has 2 stock while Peach has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat her and the other four characters one-by-one with the overall time and life the player has: Mario, Donkey Kong, Bowser, and Yoshi.
• Event 15: Girl Power: Peach is one of the opponents fought along with Samus, and Zelda. The player's character is tiny and must KO all opponents in a two stock battle.
• Event 19: Peach's Peril: As Mario, the player must prevent Peach from being KOed by Bowser for 1 minute. If Mario or Peach dies, the event results in a failure.
• Event 25: Gargantuans: A tiny Peach makes a cameo appearance in this event. She is not required to be KO'd to complete the event, though she can be KO'd without penalty.
• Event 35: Time for a Checkup: As Luigi, the player must KO Dr. Mario and Peach in a 1 stock battle. Peach wears her white alternative costume in this event.
• Event 38: Super Mario Bros. 2: The player must KO Mario, Luigi, and Peach in a 2 stock battle.

Ending images

• Peachclassic.jpg

  Classic

• Peachadventure.jpg

  Adventure

• Peachallstar.jpg

  All-Star

Trophy descriptions

Peach

"Princess Peach presides over the Mushroom Kingdom from her huge castle. Her loyal subject Toad does his best to protect her but always seems to fail spectacularly. Besides her royal duties, Peach is interested in both tennis and golf; since she's so magnanimous, she'll even deign to play a few matches with the evil Bowser. "

• Super Mario Bros. [10/85]

Peach (Smash Red)

"Peach's ability to float is invaluable in Super Smash Bros. Melee, as she can return from incredible distances. Balancing this talent, though, is the fact that she's quite light and can be sent flying with a single powerful attack. Her attacks are fairly weak, so you'll have to hang around to win."

• B: Toad
• Smash B: Peach Bomber

Peach (Smash Blue)

"Peach's Smash A attack will set her swinging with either a frying pan, tennis racket, or golf club. These bludgeoning devices appear randomly and have different reaches and power levels. The princess uses Toad to absorb attacks, and he counters by sending spores out at attackers. Don't worry about the little guy, though; he takes his job seriously. "

• Up & B: Peach Parasol
• Down & B: Vegetable

• 

  Character trophy

• 

  Smash red

• 

  Smash blue

Costumes

Peach's alternate costumes in SSBM

Trivia

• When Peach uses the Parasol item, her up special animation still remains the same, but with the parasol item in her hand instead.
• Peach, Marth, and Roy are the only characters in Melee with a special move that can counter.
• Peach is the only high tier character that can double-jump cancel.
• Peach, Mario, Samus and Ness are the only characters that use their default color when on the red team.

External links

• Nintendorks' Page on Peach (and the picture at the top)
• Sskeeto for Home Run Contest strategies