The Time Princess Peach Pissed Me Off

By Kemesha V.

I’ve played a few games in my time, however, I haven’t been able to play many until the very end. Those are in the I’ll get back to you pile. Yes, I am well aware of “rage quitting”. My favorite game, in which I rage quit, but kept my word to finish the game (it has a bunch of endings, finishing four of them is my limit…) would be my favorite game, Super Mario Odyssey. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve played a few Mario games and know the routine: Princess Peach gets kidnapped by Bowser. Mario and friends go to different worlds to fight off bosses until he finally (well, the PLAYER finally) whoops Bowser’s ass. However, SMO (Super Mario Odyssey) is my favorite being that I’ve had more fun playing this game than all the others I’ve played (and completed) combined! Although it took longer than expected to finish the game -in which I rage quitted- it’s the only game I decided to play again after finishing the main story. By the way, to get into my story, I’m going to let you all know that there are spoilers in this article. Now, let’s commence…

Ok, hear me out! My goal with SMO was to finish the game because, well, at the time, it was a challenge. Who was I challenging? Myself. You see, I didn’t really think I was capable of finishing any game. Yeah, at this point I have finished a few games prior, however the reason I decided, originally, never to purchase or play SMO was because I believed it was impossible for me to beat. This is coming from someone who purchased God of War and played most of it. The most challenging part for me to complete took me, maybe, months.  To this day, I’m not a fan of playing any game that has the character underwater for too long, but that’s a story for another article. Anyway, one day I finally said I will check it out, stop being nervous to step out of my comfort zone (I shit you not, this is a real conversation I had with myself, in my mind, while at Gamestop). To my surprise, I had a ball playing this game! I enjoyed the hunt for power moons, the different Kingdoms, everything was beautiful and thrilling, something I’ve never experienced playing any game so far! I was in a trance, finding it hard to put my Switch down! It was the game I would talk about with my co-workers, to the point of them rolling their eyes at me (which I found hilarious...they’re good people) with the certainty that I will finish this game!  Again, not my first video game, but it is the first video game I had dreams about, literal dreams. I would go to sleep after convincing myself that I wasn’t going to figure out what to do to beat a particular challenge to waking up knowing exactly what I needed to do, doing just that, and moving on to obstacle number 53 (I had my share of obstacles obtaining power moons regularly). Now, finally, I’ve made it to Moon Kingdom, already believing this is my final stretch (it’s not…), there’s no turning back now.

Being the klutz that I am, I make a lot of clumsy maneuvers when playing a character I’ve come to notice. It took, maybe 20 tries, to beat the obstacle presented while embodying Bowser. Where’s Princess Peach? Safely on my shoulder. Finally, with another 20 tries (it might’ve been more....but I was determined at this point) we were able to get back to Mario’s Airship. At this point, the game runs the predestined clip, which made me happy because I was EXHAUSTED. Bowser has control of his body again, Mario and Bowser are proposing to Princess Peach (I mean, Bowser kidnaps her to marry her and NOW he’s proposing!), Princess Peach turns them both down by attempting to STEAL MARIO’S AIRSHIP! It doesn’t end there, after all the work I put in, well Mario really, Princess Peach goes missing again by choice! After finishing Moon Kingdom, the game opens up on Mushroom Kingdom. The citizens are fretting because Princess Peach decides to, this time, pack her suitcase and leave. She tells no one where she is going, leaving the citizens to beg Mario to find this B word again (seriously, I was riled up!). Yeah, it’s her prerogative to say no and go about her business, but after hunting for her in many Kingdoms, her attempting to steal my airship, and then leaving the Kingdom, her Kingdom, like none of this shit didn’t happen!? The nerve! 

But we know Mario, he’s a decent plumber, and I got to visit my favorite Kingdom again, Metro Kingdom.  After taking a two day break, to gather my feelings, I was able to complete the second run around of the Kingdoms, in which Princess Peach is in each one and tells the player, or at least giving Mario an idea, of the next Kingdom she cares to visit. And she gives him a power moon when he finds her. As for my rage quitting for a year? It wasn’t her fault…That had to do with getting annoyed by an obstacle. However, I did get back to that obstacle and finished the game in 2 days! So, yeah, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Until next time, later.

Edited for Release, June 2023

Originally written July 2020