Super Mario Gender Swaps

The gender roles in the Mario Bros. video game franchise have always been pretty traditional. On one hand, you have the bumbling heroes, and on the other the seemingly competent princesses who always get themselves into trouble and then rely on the men to rescue them.

Not anymore. Canadian art student Beth Turnsek of Rolling Rabbit Productions accepted the challenge of swapping the genders of all the Mario Bros. characters and did the job admirably.

Turnsek has turned Princess Peach into Prince Peach, who appears to be someone straight out of a Disney movie, while Lady Mario—a female version of Mario—looks like a tough-as-nails mother, one who can save the world, then turn around to scold you, because if she’s told you once, she’s told you a million times to tuck in your shirt. And shy, socially awkward Lady Luigi is absolutely adorable.

What I would like to see, having now seen the design concept for the characters, is a full-fledged story (if not an entire video game) featuring these characters. Would Prince Peach need to rescue Lady Mario from the menacing Lady Wario? Or would the charming Prince Peach be the one kidnapped? Now that would be interesting.

And whether the world gets a whole new spin on Super Mario Bros. (Super Mario Sisters?) from these characters or not, at least I have a sweet Halloween costume this year.