Peach (SSBM)

Peach in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	Mario
Other playable appearances	in Brawl in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Tier	A (7) (North America) B (6) (Europe)

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 various titles around the time of Melee's release, including Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, and Mario Party 3, reprises her role as Peach in the game.

Currently, Peach is 7th in the A tier in NTSC version and 6th in the PAL version, giving her the highest rank of any Mario character in Melee. Peach's float grants her a slew of unique tools in movement and aerial combat. Her ability to stall in place midair grants her the best option coverage in the game with regards to edgeguarding, allowing her to easily react to any opponent’s recovery options. Her float cancel and DJC, combined with her fast aerial attacks, give her a fantastic aerial game and pressuring ability. She also has good chaingrabbing abilities, strong KO moves in her down smash, neutral aerial and forward aerial, and numerous setups to lead into them, which is particularly useful against fastfallers. Her down smash is notorious for its high damage output, capable of dealing over 40 percent in one use if not properly DI’ed, and makes crouch canceling extremely dangerous against her. She is also the owner of Vegetable, one of the best projectiles in the game. Additionally, Peach's recovery is among the best in the game; her float and up special allow her to travel extremely far horizontally, and her Peach Parasol grants her great protection at the ledge due to its large disjointed hitbox.

However, Peach's primary flaw is her slow ground movement and floatiness, which impair her approach, especially on the ground, and she gets easily outmaneuevered by faster characters such as Fox and Captain Falcon. Her lack of disjointed range on most of her attacks results in her getting walled out by characters with large hitboxes, most notoriously against Jigglypuff, who can easily outspace Peach with her back aerial alone. Peach’s light weight and floatiness also makes her more susceptible to KOs, especially on the upper blast lines.

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.

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 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/Double Royal Slap	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.
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 them 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
Smiley	1-9%	59.87%
Bored	1-9%	10.26%
Sleepy	1-9%	8.55%
Shocked	1-9%	5.13%
Laughing	1-9%	5.13%
Wink	5-13%	6.84%
Dot-Eyes	11-19%	1.71%
Stitch-Face	29-37%	1.71%
Mr. Saturn	—	0.39%
Bob-omb	—	0.26%
Beam Sword	—	0.13%

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	File:Peach Cheer NTSC Melee.ogg	File:Peach Cheer JP Melee.ogg
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

Tier placement and history

Due to Peach's great aerial potential and combo ability, she has been a character consistently ranking in the top tiers of the Melee tier list. However, she has generally been regarded as below the other top tiers in terms of tournament viability, due to her slow movement speed and floatiness. During the 2000s, several Peach players, including Sastopher, Cort, and DoH, were able to defeat top players and frequently, albeit inconsistently, place in the top eight at majors. However, Peach's tournament representation truly shined during Armada's reign of dominance from 2009 to 2013, where he placed 1st or 2nd at nearly every tournament he entered in the United States, defeating North America's top players with Peach.

However, Peach's tournament viability has always been held back by her extremely unfavorable matchup against Jigglypuff. Armada was unable to take a single game off of Hungrybox's Jigglypuff with Peach from 2009 to 2013, despite being considered a more skilled player at the time. He eventually gave up using Peach to try defeating Hungrybox, and switched to counterpicks such as Young Link and Fox, with which he had much greater success. He also brought out the Fox counterpick against other players, such as fellow Swedish player Leffen, whom he found it increasingly difficult to defeat with Peach. It is generally acknowledged that Peach's tournament success was largely due to Armada's incredible abilities as a player, rather than Peach being better than the other top tiers. This is supported by the fact that only a handful of other Peach players have been able to consistently place in the top sixteen of majors during the modern era. Following Armada's retirement from competing in 2018, Peach's representation in tournaments dropped significantly.

Today, Peach is generally considered among the least viable of the top tier characters, and is often seen as having the worst matchup spread among all the top tiers. Her lopsided matchup vs. Jigglypuff is considered the single hardest counter among any of the top tier matchups, and she is seen as clearly losing every other top tier matchup (with the exception of Falco). As a result of this perception, she has dropped to 7th on the thirteenth and latest tier list, at the bottom of A tier.

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.

Notable players

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Any number following the Smasher name indicates placement on the MPGR Summer 2022, which recognizes the official top 50 players in the world in Super Smash Bros. Melee from March 1st, 2022 until July 11th, 2022.

See also: Category:Peach professionals (SSBM)

Active

•  Azusa - Was ranked 59th on the 2017 SSBMRank
•  Alan - Was ranked 21st on the SoCal Melee Power Rankings and the NorCal Melee Power Rankings
•  Aura (#40) - Ranked 40th on the MPGR Summer 2022. The best Peach player in Oregon. Placed 17th at Mainstage. Has wins over ARMY, Westballz, Bladewise, and HugS.
•  Ares - Formally ranked 1st on the Austria Power Rankings
•  Bladewise - Ranked 1st on the Washington Power Rankings and 44th on the 2018 MPGR
•  Hanky Panky - Ranked 71st on the 2014 SSBMRank
•  Iori - Ranked 2nd on the Tennessee Power Rankings. Has wins over Nintendude and Overtriforce.
•  Kalamazhu - 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.
•  lloD (#8) - Ranked 8th on the MPGR Summer 2022. Considered to be one of the best active Peach mains, he has wins over Hungrybox, Zain, S2J, and aMSa. Sometimes uses B0XX.
•  Mayb - Ranked 12th in New York City Power Rankings
•  Mew2King - Sheik/Marth main, counterpicks Peach against Ice Climbers
•  Polish (#19) - Ranked 19th on the MPGR Summer 2022. Has wins over iBDW, Hungrybox, Ginger, lloD, Magi, KJH, ChuDat, and HugS.
•  Ryobeat - Ranked 11th in New York City Power Rankings
•  Shippu - Ranked 4th on the Japan SSBM Rank 2018.
•  Swedish Delight - Sheik main, counterpicks Peach against Ice Climbers
•  Trif - 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
•  Wally - Ranked 2nd in NJ PR with wins over KoDoRiN, Aklo, Zamu, JFlex, and Mot$.
•  Wife - A prolific commentator and one of the two remaining members of Team Ben.

Inactive

•  Armada - One of the Five Gods. Co-mained Peach along with Fox and is widely considered the greatest Peach player and the greatest Melee player of all time. He retired from competitive singles in October 2018.
•  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
•  DoH
•  Excel_Zero - Ranked 60th on the 2014 SSBMRank
•  KirbyKaze - Sheik main, counterpicks Peach against Ice Climbers
•  MacD
•  Mike G
•  VaNz
•  Vwins
•  XIF

In 1-P Mode

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, at Onett when on a team with Ness, 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.

Classic Mode trophy

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)

Adventure Mode SMASH trophy

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 therefore 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

All-Star Mode SMASH trophy

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

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, likely indicating that Toad was originally designed as a down special, similar to other counter moves.
• 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 their own tier (in the PAL version) and also not be ranked first or last.
  • Across the whole series, she shares this trait with the 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 modern design was standardized in Mario Party 4, and 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, as in Brawl and Smash 4.
  • This makes her the first non-Pokémon playable character to have an alternate costume that changes their appearance completely, rather than simply just the colors of their clothes, although only in this game.
• Peach, Mario, Yoshi, Young Link, Kirby, Falco, and Pikachu are the only characters whose portraits on the character select screen match their official artwork.
• Peach is the only fighter in Melee to have new voice clips from an English voice actress. The other fighters with English voices — Mario, Dr. Mario, Luigi, and Jigglypuff — reuse material from previous games.
  • While Fox and Falco have new voice clips from English voice actors, these are only used for the Star Fox Smash Taunt on Corneria and Venom, and their playable appearances use their Japanese voices instead.