Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Character Profiles: Peach

For the past two decades, Super Smash Bros. has been home to battles between Nintendo's top characters. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch turns up the intensity, bringing everyone back to battle it out one more time. Nintendo's top names are back and are joined by a new round of fighters, including some big-name third-party characters.

The game has been out in the wild for a little over three months, but with so many characters to choose from, Shacknews remains committed to taking a look at each and every one of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate characters individually. And we are in the home stretch, getting to the final batch of characters.

The final version is in the consumer hands, but these profiles should still not be considered final and can be updated at any time. Any guide that has been updated will be clearly marked.

Here's what we have up so far:
#01 - Mario
#02 - Donkey Kong
#03 - Link
#04 - Samus
#05 - Yoshi
#06 - Kirby (Updated 9/8/18)
#07 - Fox
#08 - Pikachu
#09 - Luigi
#10 - Ness
#11 - Captain Falcon
#15 - Ice Climbers
#16 - Sheik
#17 - Zelda
#19 - Pichu
#21 - Marth
#23 - Ganondorf
#24 - Mewtwo
#28 - Pit
#30 - Wario
#31 - Snake
#32 - Ike
#33, #34, #35 - Pokemon Trainer
#38 - Sonic (Updated 9/3/18)
#39 - King Dedede
#40 - Olimar
#42 - R.O.B.
#44 - Wolf
#45 - Villager
#46 - Mega Man
#49 - Little Mac
#55 - Pac-Man
#60 - Ryu
#61 - Cloud
#62 - Corrin
#63 - Bayonetta (Updated 1/11/19)
#64 - Inkling (Updated 12/15/18)
#65 - Ridley
#67 - King K. Rool
#70 - Piranha Plant

Our breakdowns continue with Mushroom Kingdom royalty and her Game Boy counterpart.

Who is Peach?

Peach has been at the butt of jokes going all the way back to the original NES days. She's the perennial damsel in distress. She basically has two functions: rule the Mushroom Kingdom and get kidnapped by Bowser. That's how she basically works. So it's refreshing when she actually gets to take action.

Prior to Super Smash Bros. Melee, Peach's only chance to actually work as a functioning force for good came in Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario RPG. So she brought out many of her moves from those games into Melee. and proved to be a formidable fighter. With the Super Smash Bros. series filling up more and more with butt-kicking female combatants, it can be easy to overlook Peach due to her history. But overlook her at your own peril.

Peach's Moves and Fighter Overview

If you haven't played Super Mario Bros. 2, it's waiting for you on Nintendo Switch Online right now, so give it a look and come back. As for those who have played this unappreciated classic, you'll recognize that Peach's floaty jump is one of her defining traits. This keeps her airborne and allows her to get in a slew of aerial moves, many of which have been buffed from Smash 4. Speaking of buffed moves, let's move right into her specials.

Here are Peach's special moves:

• Toad (Neutral B): Peach uses Toad as a human shield. If Toad gets hit, he'll fire off spores that will hit multiple times for moderate damage.
• Peach Parasol (Up B): Peach brings her parasol that first came into use in Super Mario RPG into battle. She'll jump skyward and connect for minor damage before slowly floating back onto the stage. It's a great recovery move, but opponents will likely be waiting, so be ready to cancel.
• Peach Bomber (Side B): Peach flies sideways and bops opponents with her butt. It does moderate-to-heavy damage, including to shielded opponents, and works as a powerful finisher. She will occasionally pluck out dot-shaped veggies for greater damage. Stitch-face veggies can cause massive damage, but are rare pulls. The rarest pulls are Mr. Saturn (1:166) and Bob-Ombs (1:250).
• Vegetable (Down B): Peach will pluck a vegetable from the ground, where she can chuck it for minor damage.
• Peach Blossom (Final Smash): Nearby enemies fall asleep. The closer to an enemy she activates this, the more damage they'll take. Sleeping enemies take much greater damage and are more easily KO'd. Peach can also chow on nearby peaches to heal for 20% each.

Several elements of Peach's game are greatly improved. Her dash attack is now easier to land and combos better. Her forward-smash is no longer random, with players able to determine which weapon Peach uses by angling the control stick differently. Her down-smash is much better, getting a damage buff and an increase in overall hits. All in all, Peach's reach is far superior to what it was in Smash 4. Peach's aerials now better complement her floaty jump, with all of her aerial moves getting a reduced landing lag.

Peach's specials are improved across the board. Toad and Peach Parasol now do greater damage, with the latter getting better knockback. Peach Bomber is a beast of a move now, getting a faster startup, increased knockback, and the ability to do more shield damage. It also has an increased base damage, for even better KO potential. Lastly, there's Peach's Vegetable, which has been noticeably buffed. All vegetables do more damage and plucks have a faster startup. And with a higher knockback, they're an even more potent edge-guarding tool than ever before.

Echo Fighter Spotlight - Daisy

Daisy's differences from Peach are marginal, but the two character models and their animations are slightly different. That means their hurtboxes differ ever-so-slightly, particularly while they're floating.

The rest of Daisy's changes are mainly cosmetic.

Esports Observations

There's no shortage of Peach pros in the competitive world of Smash Ultimate esports. And near the top of the list is Ezra "Samsora" Morris. Samsora stood out as the top Peach in Smash 4 and, as one would expect from reading the above, has only gotten better with the character's improvements in Ultimate. Here he is diving into the world of YouTube for the first time with a detailed Peach guide.

William "Leffen" Hjelte has gradually been transitioning from Melee to Ultimate and has been applying his expert knowledge to a variety of characters. That includes Peach. Here he is showing off Peach's deceptive speed and combo game.

Speaking of Melee, let's look at an old Peach expert. Adam "Armada" Lindgren was considered the best Peach in Melee, so it makes sense that he'd try to grasp her in this new game. Here's Armada showing off Peach's big changes, while he also tries to grasp some of the big differences in making the jump from the GameCube classic to the new hotness.

Lastly, we check in on the crew from VGBootCamp to get their impressions on Peach. They go into the finer points of her floaty movement, while also noting the benefits she's received in the transition to Ultimate. They'll also note, among other things, that forward-air and back-air should be the priority finishers.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is out now on Nintendo Switch. We're still going through every single character, so be sure to check back in often for more profiles. For more on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, be sure to check out our full walkthrough and guide.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?