Peach (SSBM)

Peach in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	Mario
Other playable appearances	in Brawl in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Tier	A (6) (North America) B (6) (Europe)

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

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

Jen Taylor, Peach's voice actress from Mario Golf and Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64, as well as Mario Party 3, reprises her role as Peach in the game.

Currently, Peach is 6th in the A tier in both the NTSC and PAL versions of the game giving her the highest rank of any Mario character. Peach's float cancel gives her a fantastic aerial game. She also has good chaingrabbing abilities, 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 and dash attack, impair her approach while on the ground.

Attributes

Peach does not fall into any specific archetype of a fighting game character; her attributes are quite varied, with average weight, a low falling speed, and among the slowest dashes in the game, alongside a high air speed. These attributes form the crux of Peach's combat: a focus on aerial combat while forgoing most of her ground-based options.

Arguably Peach's primary strength is her dominant air game. Despite a poor SHFFL due to a low falling speed and high jumping speed, Peach's unique ability to float gives her an enormous advantage in the air over other characters; in addition to allowing her to easily and effectively pursue characters she has knocked into the air, her midair jump's unusual properties allow her to utilize the Double Jump Cancel, a technique that allows her to quickly perform aerials in rapid succession. Outside of this, Peach's fast neutral and back aerials make them potent out of shield options. As a further benefit from her excellent aerial game, Peach's vegetables can become a powerful approaching technique compounded with her DJC.

As a result of her powerful aerial game, Peach owns among the most powerful, albeit specialized, approaches in the game. Against primarily ground-based opponents with poor aerial games, such as the Ice Climbers or Luigi, Peach can quickly overwhelm such opponents. Her vegetables can also allow her to easily camp against other characters, and due to their propensity to "bounce" upon striking other characters, they can be compounded with her DJC to combo either by themselves or with her aerials.

Regardless of her average grab range, Peach also owns a powerful throwing game. Her up throw can potentially chain throw characters with high falling speed, as well as lead into her other throws. Peach's down throw can also lead to a variety of options for herself, including another throw, a tilt, or a DJCed aerial. In addition, her forward throw and back throw can both be used as KO moves, with the former having the highest knockback for a forward throw in the game and the latter allowing her to easily segue into her powerful edgeguard game.

As a final, powerful benefit for Peach, she also boasts arguably one of the best recoveries in the game. With a high air speed, low falling speed, the ability to float, a long midair jump, the ability to recover with her side special and a long recovery special, Peach is extremely difficult to KO off the edges, even with her below average weight. Her fast neutral, up, and back aerials can also act as deterrents to edgeguarders, while her vegetables, if they are in hand during her recovery, can further aggravate such pursuers. Despite this powerful recovery, Peach's low falling speed and below average weight can also allow her to be easily KO'd via the upper blast line, and vertical finishers can more easily KO Peach than other top tiered characters.

Barring her grab and throw game, however, Peach suffers on the ground. Peach's side and down tilt attacks are slow, though good reads by players can potentially allow for her to use them as combo starters. Peach's smashes also suffer from similar problems, though her down smash can inflict significant damage to opponents and shields, while her up smash can potentially act as a potent KO move. A slow dashing speed (the second lowest in the game) also prevents her from easily pursuing opponents on foot, and her various attributes give her the shortest wavedash in the game, preventing her from taking advantage of wave smashing. Arguably Peach's best attack on the ground takes form of her dash attack; the attack can act as a useful combo starter, but barring this, the use of Peach's ground game for approaching should be avoided by players, and instead, they should be used to either continue combos or to finish them.

Moveset

Peach's aerial attacks.

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

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		Royal Slap (first), Double Royal Slap (second)	3%	Slaps the opponent twice. The first hit is usually used to start combos.
			2%
Forward tilt		Can-Can Kick	13%/11%/10% (clean), 6% (late)	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	12%	Bashes her head upwards. Does not have much combo potential, but can be followed up by correctly spaced aerials and Peach Parasol. Peach's head is intangible while the hitboxes are out.
Down tilt		Elegant Sweep	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	12%/9% (clean), 8%/7% (late)	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 chain grab. Overall, an integral move in Peach's competitive metagame.
Forward smash		Peach Swing	Golf club: 17%/13% Frying Pan: 17%/15% Tennis Racket: 12%	Swings one of the following. Damage and knockback vary with each weapon, though all three possess very low knockback. 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. Frying pan - Strongest of the three, KOing at about 120%. Sends opponents upwards. Sweetspot is the head of the frying pan. Tennis racket - Weakest of the three, uncharged hit does not KO until ridiculously high percentages. Good for edgeguarding.
Up smash		Pirouette	8% (sides), 15% (hand), 19% (arm)	Twirls around with arm raised upwards. 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. Both of Peach's arms and hand are intangible while the hitboxes are active.
Down smash		Double-Edged Gown	12%/14% (5 hits) (12%-70% total)	Does an anticlockwise tornado spin on her left foot, hitting multiple times. 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	14% (clean), 9% (late body), 10% (late arms)	Twirls in the air. Can KO at high percentage. Good OoS option because of its speed (frame 3).
Forward aerial		Crown Smack	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	14% (clean), 10% (late)	Sticks out her rear backwards for good knockback, with the hitbox centralized around her pelvis. Has passable power for it to be a finisher. Good OoS option.
Up aerial		Floating High Kick	11% (body), 12% (leg), 14% (foot)	A quick kick at an upwards angle. Can KO opponents at above 110%.
Down aerial		Stiletto Kick	3% (hits 1-4)	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		Grab	—
Pummel		Heel Stomp	3%	Stomps opponent with her left foot.
Forward throw		Royal Slap	2% (hit 1), 8% (throw)	Slaps the foe in front of her for very good knockback. Strongest forward throw in the game.
Back throw		Iron Hip	2% (hit 1), 9% (throw)	Puts opponent behind her and hits them with her rear. The throw can KO opponents above 170% if used near the edge.
Up throw		Gut Punch	2% (hit 1), 6% (throw)	Puts opponent above her, and volleys him/her upward. Can chaingrab characters with moderate to floaty falling speeds at 0%. Fast-fallers 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	0% (hit 1), 7% (throw)	Puts opponent down and sits on them. Can chaingrab floaty characters, heavyweights and fast-fallers at high percentages. It can lead into her forward tilt depending on character's weight, fall speed, and DI.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6% (front hit), 8%/6% (back hit legs/body)	Performs a sweep kick while getting up.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Performs a sweep kick while getting up.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			6%	Launches herself onto the stage, rear first.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			10% (feet), 8% (body)	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	3% (hits 1-7)	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	16% (normal), 18% (smash attack)	Lunges forward, hitting opponents with her rear. If Peach hits opponent, it will produce an explosion and knock them away. When inputted as a smash attack, the move deals more damage and knockback.
Up special		Peach Parasol	5% (hit 1), 1% (hits 2-11), 3% (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. The parasol itself can damage opponents during Peach's descent.
Down special		Vegetable	Varies	Pulls out a vegetable, which can be used as a projectile.

Vegetable Damage Data

Face	Damage	Pull Rate
Grin	1-9%	60.34%
Stare	1-9%	10.34%
Closed Eyes	1-9%	8.62%
Surprised	1-9%	5.17%
Happy	1-9%	5.17%
Wink	5-13%	6.90%
Dot-Eyes	11-19%	1.72%
Stitch-Face	29-37%	1.72%
Mr. Saturn	—	0.33%
Bob-omb	—	0.33%
Beam Sword	—	0.33%

Taunt

• Performs a spin, then poses and winks, saying "Sweet!"

Idle poses

Note: According to the debug menu in Melee, Peach will always perform the idle pose listed first, then will randomly perform any of the idles poses listed below.

• Looks over both her shoulders and rubs something off her dress.
• Raises her arms up and stretches.
• Looks at her hands.
• Brushes her hair. (Will always perform this idle pose when holding a small item (Capsules, Poké Balls, etc.))

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Go-Peach!	Pea-chy!
Pitch	Group chant	Male

Victory poses

An orchestrated cover of the iconic "Level Completed" music from Super Mario Bros..

• Turns around and waves to the screen while winking.
• Looks up towards her right and says, "Oh, did I win?"
• Holds her hand out, then says, "This is fun!"

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

Peach has a very strong matchup spread when compared to the rest of the cast. She is soft countered by 5 characters, has 3 even matchups, soft counters 9 characters, counters 5, and hard counters 3. She does incredibly well against characters who she can easily edgeguard and space out with her aerials, such as Roy, Pikachu, and especially the Ice Climbers. Peach generally fares poorly against characters that can exploit her light weight and floatiness; in particular, Fox, Sheik, and Captain Falcon all have reliable KO setups against her because of these properties. She also fares poorly against characters who have such a superior ground game that her advantages in the air are neutralized, such as the aforementioned Fox and Captain Falcon, as well as Marth, who outranges and outspaces her and can stifle her aerial approaches with timely aerials of his own. Peach especially has trouble against characters who have a better aerial game than she does, such as Jigglypuff, who can easily edgeguard her and space her out with forward and back aerials.

Overall, Peach does well against almost every character in the game and has the tools to effectively fight the entire cast, despite having trouble in some matchups in the top tier. Metagame developments since the creation of this matchup chart have suggested that Peach actually has an even matchup against Sheik and a close to even matchup with Marth, meaning that she fares slightly better in the present than she did in the past.

Notable players

Any number following the Smasher name indicates placement on the Summer 2019 MPGR, which recognizes the official top 50 players in the world in Super Smash Bros. Melee from February 1st, 2019 to July 7th, 2019.

Active

•  Azusa - Was ranked 59th on the 2017 SSBMRank
•  Alan
•  Fiction (#15) - Fox main with a Peach secondary.
•  Squid (#49) - Falco main with a Peach secondary.
•  Ares - Ranked 1st on the Austria
•  Bladewise - Ranked 1st on the Washington Power Rankings and 44th on the 2018 MPGR
•  DoH
•  Excel_Zero - Ranked 60th on the 2014 SSBMRank
•  Hanky Panky - Ranked 71st on the 2014 SSBMRank
•  Iori
•  Kalamazhu (#40) - One of the best Peach players in the world. Placed 17th at GENESIS 6 and 17th at Full Bloom 5. Has wins over Gahtzu, Lucky, and Nintendude.
•  KirbyKaze - Sheik main, counterpicks Peach against Ice Climbers
•  lloD
•  MacD
•  Mayb - Ranked 12th in New York City Power Rankings
•  Mew2King - Sheik/Marth main, counterpicks Peach against Ice Climbers
•  Mike G
•  Ryobeat - Ranked 11th in New York City Power Rankings
•  Shippu - Ranked 4th on the Japan SSBM Rank 2018.
•  Swedish Delight (#13) - Sheik main, counterpicks Peach against Ice Climbers
•  Trif (#12) - Ranked 12th on the Summer 2019 MPGR, 2nd on the European Melee Power Rankings, and 1st on the Spanish Power Rankings.
•  Vanity Angel - Ranked 96th on the 2016 SSBMRank, 18th in Europe, 3rd in the UK 2016
•  VaNz
•  Vwins
•  Wife

Inactive

•  Armada - One of the Five Gods. The best Peach in terms of results as well as being a Fox co-main. He retired from competitive singles in October 2018, but is still active in doubles.
•  CAOTIC Was ranked 13th in SoCal before moving to Australia
•  Mafia - Was ranked 46th on the Summer 2017 SSBMRank but was banned from tournaments in his region and excluded from the 2017 SSBMRank after accusations of emotional abuse and sexual assault by his ex-girlfriend.
•  Cort
•  Mikael
•  Pink Shinobi
•  Sastopher
•  Vidjogamer

Tier placement and history

Due to Peach's great aerial potential and combo ability, as well as her powerful potential 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 at national tournaments. Outside of Armada, representation of Peach in tournaments has still been ubiquitous, with many pre-top 8 placements, but other dedicated Peach players have seldom been able to earn significant money. Despite this, Peach is still ranked in the top tier at 6th place, and is still considered by some smashers to be one of the most powerful characters in the game.

PAL viability

Peach did not receive any changes from NTSC to PAL, but several characters that would years later be placed higher than her on the tier list did; Fox now has a harder time KOing Peach and gets edgeguarded much more easily, Sheik has no guaranteed followups with her down throw and relies more heavily on zoning, and Marth has slightly lower air speed and weight, improving Peach's chances in those matchups. Peach is still ranked 6th in the PAL tier list, but is notably placed in her own tier at B, where most European players can see a noticeable difference in viability between Sheik, Peach, and Captain Falcon.

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, and on Temple when on a team with Zelda. In other cases, she is fought on either Princess Peach's Castle or Mushroom Kingdom II. Unusually, unlike every other Mario character (including sub-series), Peach does not appear as a giant opponent, making her the only Mario character overall that is ineligible for this battle type.

In Adventure Mode

Peach appears in the second portion of Stage 1 along with Mario or Luigi 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 alternate costume in this event to emulate the white garb traditionally worn by nurses.
• Event 38: Super Mario Bros. 2: The player must KO Mario, Luigi, and Peach in a 2 stock battle.

Ending images

• 

  Classic Mode

• 

  Adventure Mode

• 

  All-Star Mode

Trophies

In addition to the normal trophy about Peach as a character, there are two trophies about her as a fighter that are unlocked by completing the Adventure and All-Star modes on any difficulty with Peach.

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]

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]

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

• 

  Classic

• 

  [SMASH]

• 

  [SMASH]

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Official artwork of Peach.

• 

  Standing on a ledge on Fountain of Dreams.

• 

  Taunting next to Mario on Princess Peach's Castle.

• 

  Standing next to Dr. Mario on Jungle Japes.

• 

  Holding a Fire Flower with Jigglypuff on Green Greens.

Trivia

• When Peach uses Peach Parasol at the end of the match, she will be rewarded with the Parasol Finish bonus. In addition, if she uses it with the Parasol item, her up special animation will remain the same, but with the Parasol in her hands instead.
• The animation filenames for Peach's Neutral special and Down special are swapped, originally intended for Toad to be a Down special move, just like all other counter specials featured in the series.
• Peach and Donkey Kong are the only characters in Melee who cannot use their down special in the air.
• Peach is the only character in Melee to be in her own tier (in the PAL version) and also not be ranked first or last.
  • Across the whole series, she shares this trait with Ice Climbers on the NTSC Brawl tier list and Diddy Kong on the PAL Brawl tier list, though she is the only one of the three that is not ranked 2nd.
• Peach is the only Mario character in Melee, including sub-series Donkey Kong and Yoshi, that cannot appear as a giant character in Stage 5 of Classic Mode.
• Peach's design in this game, like the rest of the cast, is based on her appearance in the Nintendo 64 era. This is one of two Gamecube games to do this, with the other being Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. Her design in her next appearance, Super Mario Sunshine, with the finalized version being Mario Party 4, would be changed to her current dress design, which has been used in every Smash game since.
• This marks the only time Peach's Daisy costume is designed to make her look exactly like Daisy as opposed to simply recoloring her with Daisy's colors in Brawl and Smash 4.
  • This makes her the first non-Pokémon playable character to have an alternate costume that changes her appearance completely rather than simply just the colors of her clothes, although only in this game.
• Peach, Mario, Yoshi, Link, Young Link, Kirby, Falco, and Pikachu are the only characters whose portraits on the character select screen match their official artwork.