Toadette, known in Japanese as , is a character in the Mario franchise, first introduced in 2003's Mario Kart: Double Dash as Toad's racing partner. Originally appearing as mainly a side character playable in many spin-off titles, Toadette has since gone on to appear as a main playable character in many mainline Mario installments such as New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Super Mario Maker 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, as well as serving as one of the two protagonists in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.
In her debut, Toadette was initially voiced by Jen Taylor and has since gone on to be voiced by Samantha Kelly and Laura Stahl respectively. Despite often being seen as the female counterpart to the Toads, neither Toad or Toadette were designed by Nintendo with genders in mind but instead as a genderless race that display gendered characteristics. In her appearance in U Deluxe, Toadette is capable of using a power-up called the Super Crown, which transforms her into a Princess Peach look-alike called that allows her to improve her jumping abilities.
Toadette received commentary in regards to her gender and the roles she appears in, with some characters describing her as a "Ms. Male Character" and comparing her to the comic strip character Smurfette. Additional commentary was given about her relationship with Toad. Following the reveal of her Peachette form, it became the subject of both critics and fans who tried to understand how the power-up worked and the implications it had within the franchise's lore. Other critics used the Super Crown as an analogy for the transgender community. Peachette's reveal also saw the creation of Bowsette, a fan created character based on the idea of the Mario villain Bowser if he used the Super Crown. The character became widely discussed among journalists and became immensely popular on social media as well as within art and cosplay communities.
Appearances Toadette debuted in 2003's Mario Kart: Double Dash, acting as the counterpart and racing partner to Toad. Both Toadette and Toad can be unlocked by the player after getting first place in the Special Cup on the 100cc mode, with both characters being the only ones that have access to the "Super Mushroom" item, later referred to in the series as the "Golden Mushroom". A kart named after Toadette can also be unlocked. Toadette would continue to reappear in the Mario Kart series as a playable racer in Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 8, Mario Kart Tour and Mario Kart World; in the latter two games, she receives unique costumes for the player to unlock. Tour also added a Toadette-themed costume for the playable Miis, which was later added in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in Wave 6 of the Booster Course Pass. As part of a Mario Kart-themed collaboration with McDonald's in 2022, Toadette appeared as one of multiple collectable toys in Happy Meals. This toy was later featured in a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe collaboration in 2024.
Although her first appearance in the Super Mario series was a brief cameo in Super Mario Galaxy, her first notable appearance was in 2016's Super Mario Run. She initially acts as a referee and tally counter for the "Toad Rally" mode, however, the player can unlock her as a playable character by amassing a certain amount of colored Toads. Although not playable in Super Mario 3D World, a programmer named Nickoloxx discovered unused voice line and animation data in the Nintendo Switch version, suggesting Toadette was potentially considered to be a playable character in the game before being scrapped later in development. Toadette appears in Super Mario Odyssey, appearing in Peach's Castle. She takes on the role of an archivist by tracking the player's achievements throughout their playthrough; by completing each achievement she rewards the player with one of the game's collectable Power Moons.
Toadette was added as one of the four playable characters in 2019's New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, the Nintendo Switch port of New Super Mario Bros. U and New Super Luigi U, replacing the character slot of Blue Toad from the original Mario Bros. U. In the game she acts as an "easy mode" for players due to being the only character capable of using the Super Crown, a crown-shaped power-up that transforms Toadette into a Princess Peach look-alike called Peachette. Peachette acts similarly to the Flying Squirrel power-up; however, it makes her lighter when jumping and has the ability to double jump and float across levels, as well as allowing her to bounce out of bottomless pits, lava or poison. Toadette is also capable of using the power-ups that other characters can use. Peachette went on to appear as a playable racer in Mario Kart Tour, giving her the Mushroom Cannon item; she was later added in Wave 6 of Mario Kart 8 Deluxes Booster Course Pass. Following U Deluxe, Toadette has gone on to reappear as a playable character in both Super Mario Maker 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder; however, she plays identically to the other characters available. In addition to being in Maker 2s course player modes, Toadette also appears in the game's story mode as the chief of reconstructing Peach's Castle following its destruction. In this role, Toadette is responsible for buying the materials for reconstruction using the money Mario accrued from completing missions, as well as granting the player the ability to choose which part of the castle to rebuild.
Toadette is one of the two main protagonists in the Super Mario 3D World spin-off, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. The game's first episode starts out with Captain Toad and Toadette treasure hunting for a star, with the two finding it before both the star and Toadette are kidnapped by the game's antagonist, Wingo. Captain Toad sets out on a journey to rescue her, eventually doing so. In the following episode, the roles are reversed with him being the one who gets kidnapped by Wingo instead, leaving Toadette on a similar journey to rescue him. Toadette has the same playstyle as Captain Toad; she is unable to jump due to being weighed down by her backpack, instead only being able to walk, run and use turnips and items to defeat enemies. At the end of Episode 2, she rescues Captain Toad before ultimately becoming kidnapped by Wingo again. During Episode 3, she is accidentally freed and ventures to find Captain Toad, with the episode swapping between the protagonists, though she is ultimately kidnapped by Wingo again and later saved by Captain Toad at the end of the episode. In Treasure Trackers "Special Episode" DLC for the Nintendo Switch version of the game, both Captain Toad and Toadette are playable together in co-op mode. She later appears alongside Captain Toad and the Toad Brigade in the postgame of Bowser's Fury. Toadette's design in Treasure Tracker was later added as a Mystery Mushroom costume in Super Mario Maker in 2016, and as a costume to Mario Kart Tour in 2020. Concept art for the game depicting Toadette reaching for a mushroom was released by the Nintendo Spain Twitter account in 2019.
Toadette has gone on to appear in multiple other spin-off Mario series. In the Mario Party series, Toadette debuted in Mario Party 6 as a playable character, being the game's only unlockable character; players are required to unlock her by earning stars from the game's different modes. She would go on to make a playable appearance in subsequent entries in the series. In other entries, such as Advance, The Top 100, Super, and Superstars, Toadette instead serves as a host or a guide for the game. Mario Party DS features a board named after her called "Toadette's Music Room". In Mario sports games, Toadette has made multiple playable appearances in the Mario Tennis,Sources: Mario Golf,Sources:
and Mario Baseball series, as well as in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 as a guest character. Outside of the sports games, Dr. Toadette is also playable in Dr. Mario World. Additionally, she has made non-playable appearances in Yakuman DS and Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. Among the Mario role-playing games, Toadette first appeared in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door where she would teach the player new boot and hammer techniques upon unlocking them. She later made a notable appearance in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, becoming an inventor and designer. After Mario, Luigi and Paper Mario rescue multiple Paper Toads, she is able to coordinate the Toads to help her create giant controllable Papercrafts for the trio to use in Papercraft boss battles. During a mission in Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, the player is tasked with escorting Toadette across a battlefield, where the player can use a character's ability to either protect her or avoid her from being spotted. She later makes an appearance in the game's sequel.
Concept and creation
Toadette resembles a Toad, fungi-humanoids that reside in the Mushroom Kingdom, with a pink mushroom cap head and primarily pink outfit, although in her debut in Mario Kart: Double Dash she wore scarlet dress and a maroon vest instead. Unlike regular Toads, Toadette has pigtails forming from her head resembling pink mushrooms. She was created for Double Dash as a racing partner for Toad, where both need to be unlocked by the player; according to the game's chief director, Kiyoshi Mizuki, Toad was originally meant to available from the beginning of the game but the developers couldn't think of who to partner him with, so they opted to leave him out at the time and make him unlockable. According to Treasure Tracker producer Koichi Hayashida in an interview with GameSpot, that despite other female Toads existing in titles such as Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and The Thousand Year Door, neither Toadette or Toad were created with a specific gender or sex in mind, but were rather a genderless race that take on gendered characteristics. Additionally, despite the guides for Double Dash referring to the pair as being partners and the guides for Mario Kart Wii and 8 referring to them as siblings, Hayashida debunked both and instead referred to them as "adventure pals" instead of anything romantic. When asked about why the race were mushroom-like, he denied them being fully mushroom but said that "This particular riddle might stay unsolved. That's one of the great mysteries of the Mario universe."
Like other Mario characters, Toadette is capable of picking up power-ups that give her new abilities, changes her height and outfit, as well as the color of her mushroom cap head. However, the Super Crown, an item resembling a crown with a mushroom in it, can exclusively be used by her.Sources:
Using the Super Crown transforms Toadette into Peachette, a form nearly identical to Princess Peach but is differentiated by having gray eyes instead of Peach's blue eyes, pigtails, a different dress and being slightly shorter.
In certain productions, some depictions of Toadette were scrapped from the final product. During the development of Super Mario Odyssey, a Toadette costume for Mario was designed and considered for the final game. However, according to The Art of Super Mario Odyssey book, the artist of the design said it wasn't chosen as it did not "suit [Mario]", although the artist acknowledged that believed the hat for the costume, Toadette's pigtails, would have been fun to throw. In a piece of concept art designed by artist Jed Diffenderfer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it depicted a group scene of unused characters such as Toadette, Toadsworth and Princess Daisy fighting a hoard of enemies such as Birdo.