 Are you as obsessed about Peachette and Bowsette as I am? Judging by my Twitter feed, you probably are. Bowsette has gained a phenomenal fan base very, very quickly, despite, let's face it, not actually being an official Mario character. This all stems from Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, a port of a Wii U game that's heading to the Switch with some unique changes. Toadette is now a playable character, and by grabbing a crown power-up she can transform herself into Princess Peach, or a variation thereof. I guess they don't call their Princess Toadstool for nothing. Many of you have been trying to figure out how this works. How can a humble Toad metamorphosize, or in the words of Pokemon, evolve, into the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom? Is Peach herself a Toad that has reached her max level and morphed into her final form? Is this simply a title that's passed from one princess to another? Is Princess Peach basically Tim Allen from the Santa Claus movie? If something should happen to her put on the suit the mushrooms will know what to do. And if so, how did Daisy and Rosalina factor into all this? Or Baby Peach for that matter? Even more interesting though, has been the question of what happens if other characters specifically Bowser were to grab the power-up, hence Bowsette, the internet's latest and greatest obsession. An explanation of the working of all this seems unlikely. In a game series where green dinosaurs can swallow enemies before birthing them out as eggs, I don't think we'll ever get clarification on how Toadette will become Peachette. Personally, I'm far more interested in the changes that Peachette will make to New Super Mario Bros. You. This is a massive step forward for the series as a whole, and what looks like a bizarre addition to the game could actually fix one of the biggest problems with Nintendo's 2D multiplayer platforms. New Super Mario Bros. You was the very first game I bought for the Wii U. I actually bought it before we got a Wii U. I was buying a 2DS in order to play Pokemon X, and New Super Mario Bros. You was on sale for just £15 new, and I thought, eh, why not? And so, about a year later, when Breton Stripes got a Wii U and Mario Kart 8 for her birthday, we had a second game to play together as well. Except, Breton Stripes didn't really care for it, so I played most of New Super Mario Bros. You by myself, and I have to say, it's not exactly the most original game that Nintendo has ever put out. Sure, there are some neat ideas in here, and some fun platforming mechanics that I enjoyed well enough at the time. I recognise Yoshiaki Koizumi's trademark approach to inventive gameplay ideas, as each stage introduces a new concept before making it increasingly difficult as the player is tested. But I can't help but feel that New Super Mario Bros. You is simply more of the same. By the time I got my hands on this game, I'd already played my fill of New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I consider both of those games to be fairly interchangeable. There's not much to separate them in terms of world design, art style, or play mechanics. If you've seen one New Super Mario Bros. game, you've seen them all. Except, of course, for New Super Mario Bros. 2, which has the distinction of simply being filled with coins and therefore incredibly boring. It's a good game for teaching the dangers of inflation, I suppose, as suddenly all currency and extra lives are meaningless. If I had to try and pick something that makes New Super Mario Bros. You different from the other games that have come before, it's possibly the presence of Yoshi, although I can't say that I think the character adds all that much to the gameplay. He might well have turned up in a previous title in the series and I simply didn't notice. Even if New Super Mario Bros. You is the first game to feature Yoshi, it's not like we haven't seen Yoshi before. As I've already established, the eggy dinosaur is a staple of the series, and unless he's hanging out around the top of Peach's castle in Mario 64, his presence in a game isn't really all that noteworthy. Personally, I wonder why Nintendo would even bother bringing New Super Mario Bros. You to the Switch. It seemed like it would take just as much effort to bring Mario and make it to the platform, and that game actually offers something players can't get anywhere else. But then comes Toadette, and we finally get something new. Now obviously Toadette isn't completely new. She's been showing up semi-regularly since her original debut in the best Mario Kart game, Double Dash. She's one of the best characters in that game, by the way. She and Toad get the special king mushroom item that blasts you through the level and nothing can beat it, except maybe the chain chomp that Baby Mario and Luigi get. Wow, this game series feels strange sometimes. But by joining New Super Mario Bros. You, Toadette brings a new character to a platforming series that is in desperate need of a shake-up. The character roster for the New Super Mario games has always been eye-rollingly uninspired. Nintendo needed four characters for the Wii version of this game. So we got Mario and Luigi naturally and Toad because, sure, why not? And then another Toad. Hmm. I'm not sure what caused Nintendo to think that this was ever a good idea. Here we have a game where two of the characters are classic Mario characters and are well-defined with distinct personalities. And the other two are just random NPCs, given a chance at the big leagues, but never actually given their own names. They're simply Yellow Toad and Blue Toad. Or at least they are to the casual observer, like me. I'm sure they probably have a much more extensive backstory for those who've been paying attention, but even at its most deep, the Mario series is hardly fire emblem. Perhaps that's why Nintendo figured they could get away with simply throwing in two Toads for the third and fourth player characters in the games. This isn't a series that really cares that much about the story. Of course, the notably absent character in all this is Princess Peach herself. Traditionally, when four characters are needed for a Mario platformer, we get Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Peach. But this was a style of play that was chosen based on adapting another title, Doki Doki Panic, for a Western release. And yes, I said Doki Doki and not Doki Doki. The Western Super Mario Bros. 2 is an aberration and not generally seen part of the standard Mario gameplay canon, even if Peach did end up adopting her floaty jump from the game forever. Originally, the new Super Mario Bros. games were dreamed up as a return to the classic formula of Mario gameplay, and this meant making Peach the damsel in distress, locking her away in a cage while Mario and Luigi save the day. If you've seen some of our previous videos on Amy Rose in the Sonic franchise, you may be able to guess where my argument is heading here, but bear with me. But the new Super Mario Bros. series doesn't feel so new anymore. What once was the nostalgia trip, novel in its retro charm, has now been revisited again and again and again. Princess Peach has been kidnapped in four new Super Mario Bros. games, making this whole plot woefully predictable. But Toadette changes this. First off, she adds another playable character to the lineup, so we're not just dealing with two interchangeable toads. There's a bigger conversation here to be had around the token female and the often-cited Smurfette principle, but I'm going to leave that to one side for today. The other benefit to Toadette is that she gives Princess Peach a more hands-on proactive role in her own story. Peach is one of the most iconic famous characters in video games. Her fame borders on that of a Disney princess, which is saying a lot. Especially if you've ever seen the inside of my house. Princesses, princesses everywhere, such as life with a three-year-old. But in spite of her fame, Peach is more of an idea than a character, present for so very little of the story. She exists to be sought after, either by a large tyrannical monster or by an earnest working-class hero. Peach's role in the story is to give Mario something to strive for. In practical terms, the damsel in distress is an object that the hero and the villain fight over. For her actual impact in these games, Peach could often be replaced by an inanimate object, and not much would change. She is a symbol of control over the kingdom, but one that has no agency of her own. Essentially, it's not Peach that Mario and Bowser are fighting over, but rather Peach's royal status. Her crown. And what key item will Toadette use to transform into Peach? In conjuring up the appearance of the famous princess, Nintendo is basically giving Peach agency of the sort, while also continuing to use her as the damsel in distress. Mario is still fighting to rescue the princess, but Peach is also fighting to rescue herself, albeit using Toadette as an avatar. Or maybe Toadette is using Peach as an avatar? None of this is clear, it's a cappy situation all over again. But what matters is that Peach is able to be involved, even symbolically, in her own rescue. Toadette's inclusion in the story helps to overcome some of the more dated problematic elements of the traditional Mario formula, while simultaneously giving Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe a unique character with her own controls that makes this game a lot more interesting. This isn't a perfect solution to the problems that the new Super Mario Bros. games face. I'd still love to see a sequel to Super Princess Peach. Or, alternatively, some form of canonical character that resembles Bowsette. There certainly exists a fan base for the idea of a female Bowser in some form or other. The Mario franchise could do with a nuanced female villain. There's something inherently potent about the Bowser Peach hybrid that's captured imaginations, and it would be wonderful to see some form of this appear in a game. It's not entirely dissimilar to Nintendo fans' constant call for a War Peach or a Wario Peach. People like the idea of seeing the darker side of gaming's premiere princess. Until then, there is plenty of, shall we say, varied fan art that depicts Bowsette. In the meantime, Peach will be far more active in Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, if only because she's lending her face to Toadette. This is an interesting development and it is certainly a step forward.