[Your Name] Course: [e.g., Video Game Studies / Narrative Design] Date: [Current Date] Abstract This paper examines the conceptual fan game Mario Is Missing: Peach’s Untold Tale , a hypothetical reimagining of Nintendo’s 1993 edutainment title Mario Is Missing . While the original game marginalizes Princess Peach as a captive reward, the Untold Tale variant repositions her as the active protagonist on a quest to rescue Mario and Luigi. Through analysis of fan design documents, community discourse, and ludonarrative structures, this paper argues that Peach’s Untold Tale functions as a critical counter-narrative to the “damsel in distress” trope. It explores how mechanics of exploration, puzzle-solving, and resource management—borrowed from edutainment and adventure genres—can be repurposed to construct a feminist revision of mainstream platformer logic. The paper concludes that such fan projects reveal significant gaps in commercial franchise storytelling and offer blueprints for more equitable character agency in children’s games. 1. Introduction Since her debut in Super Mario Bros. (1985), Princess Peach Toadstool has predominantly served as an object of rescue rather than a subject of action. The 1993 edutainment title Mario Is Missing (Mindscape) breaks little new ground: Mario vanishes, Luigi travels through real-world cities to recover artifacts, and Peach remains absent from gameplay—mentioned only as a reward. In recent fan circles, a conceptual remake titled Mario Is Missing: Peach’s Untold Tale has emerged not as a playable game but as a design blueprint and narrative manifesto. This paper analyzes that blueprint, asking: How does shifting protagonist status from Luigi to Peach transform the game’s ideological message? And what can fan-led narrative corrections teach us about character agency in legacy franchises? 2. The Original Mario Is Missing : A Flawed Template Mario Is Missing (SNES, PC) is an educational adventure game where players control Luigi. The premise is minimal: Bowser has kidnapped Mario and scattered historical artifacts across real-world cities. Luigi must return each artifact to its landmark by answering trivia questions. Peach never appears as a playable character; her sole function is as a captured prize in the franchise’s broader mythology (Sarkeesian, 2013).
Mario Is Missing (1993). Mindscape / Nintendo. [Game].
Deconstructing the Damsel: Narrative Agency and Paratextual Play in Mario Is Missing: Peach’s Untold Tale mario is missing peaches untold tale
| Mechanic | Original Mario Is Missing | Peach’s Untold Tale | |----------|-----------------------------|------------------------| | Protagonist | Luigi (male sidekick) | Peach (female monarch) | | Primary action | Returning artifacts | Rescuing brothers + fixing ecosystems | | Knowledge acquisition | Trivia (rote) | Environmental puzzles (applied logic) | | Female character role | Absent / reward | Central agent | | Ending | Mario rescued | Mario & Luigi rescued; Peach declines thanks |
The shift from “trivia” to “puzzle ecology” is crucial. Instead of answering disconnected facts, Peach repairs bridges by rerouting water flow, decodes Koopa scripts using a Rosetta stone mechanic, and negotiates with neutral enemies (e.g., Goomba defectors). Learning becomes embedded in world logic, not external quizzing. [Your Name] Course: [e
Super Mario Bros. (1985). Nintendo EAD. [Game].
Ludically, the game emphasizes passive learning over action. Luigi does not jump; he walks, collects, and answers. The damsel trope is not challenged but reinforced—Mario’s absence is a problem to be solved by a male surrogate. Feminist game scholar Anita Sarkeesian notes that such designs “teach young players that female characters exist only as rewards for male achievement” (2013, p. 42). Mario Is Missing thus provides an ideal target for critical revision. Peach’s Untold Tale —circulating primarily on fan forums like FanGameForge and Mario Fan Game Galaxy (2019–2024)—inverts the original’s structure. The premise: Bowser has captured Mario and Luigi simultaneously. Princess Peach, refusing to wait, dons modified platformer boots and travels not to real-world cities but to “Forgotten Kingdoms” (original fan-created biomes: Clockwork Canopy, Silent Shores, Koopa Keep). Introduction Since her debut in Super Mario Bros
Sarkeesian, A. (2013). Tropes vs. Women in Video Games: Damsel in Distress (Part 1) . Feminist Frequency.