Ever had one of those days that starts out perfectly normal, only to have everything you thought you knew completely turned upside down? That’s exactly how my day began this morning, when I sat down to work and stumbled upon a post claiming Mario and Peach are merely "good friends"—rather than, you know, anything else I might have imagined their relationship to be.
"Princess Peach and Mario are good friends and help each other out whenever they can."
— Kābī (@KirPinkFury) July 23, 2025
Via: Nintendo Today app. pic.twitter.com/IsyQqe2KLz
This slightly infuriating tidbit comes from the Nintendo Today app. Although the original post has since been replaced due to the app’s regular content updates, screenshots have been preserved in several places, including by Twitter user @KirPinkFury, who first brought it to wider attention. The post, which featured a profile on Princess Peach, contained the line: "Princess Peach and Mario are good friends and help each other out whenever they can." Just good friends? But what about all those occasions where they clearly shared a kiss?
"Hold on," you might argue, "they can be good friends and be in a relationship. Being friends with the person you love is important." And yes, you’re absolutely right. But who actually refers to their partner like that in everyday conversation? I certainly don’t go around introducing my husband as my "good friend"—that would confuse a lot of people, him included! So the only logical explanation here is that Nintendo is deliberately downplaying Mario and Peach’s relationship, stepping back from the many, many times it was strongly implied they were, at the very least, romantically involved.
To be fair, Nintendo hasn’t always been consistent on this front. Over the years, Peach has been called Mario’s "special someone," and the two have repeatedly been shown sharing some level of romantic chemistry. Yoshiaki Koizumi of Nintendo even stated in an interview that Mario "carries a torch" for Peach. Nintendo once celebrated them as a couple complete with pink hearts for Valentine’s Day. And let’s not forget that Mario attempted to propose at the end of Super Mario Odyssey. Sure, Peach turned him down—but she had just survived a kidnapping and an attempted forced marriage to Bowser. Honestly, if I’d just been through all that and my partner proposed the moment I was rescued, I might have told him to take a hike too.
Still, whatever the case may be, it looks like they’re just friends now. Or something like that. Just like Link and Zelda—two characters who live together and totally share a bed. Next thing you know, they’ll try to tell us nothing’s going on between all those characters in Fire Emblem.
