Platformers That Let You Play As A Princess

Highlights

• Video game princesses are breaking stereotypes, showcasing their bravery in their own adventures and not just as damsels in distress.
• Princess Peach leads the pack in platforming games, with unique abilities like gliding and manipulating emotions for gameplay.
• Other princesses featured in platformers are Gwendolyn and Momohime, adding diversity to the genre with their stories.

Video game stories used to be pretty simple and often involved a male hero rescuing a female. This female could have been a princess as well. It’s a trope that has existed outside of video games as well as can be seen in many Disney movies such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, and so on.

Of the many video game princesses, Peach stands out from the Mario series. Fortunately for Peach fans, she has found her way into being playable in many mainline and spinoff titles including the upcoming Princess Peach: Showtime. What else has Peach starred in and what about some other platforming princesses of note? Here’s a look at the royal family tree of female badasses.

7 Arzette

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore

• Released: February 14, 2024
• Developer: Seedy Eye Software
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is the most recent platformer starring a young princess. It pays homage to the Philips CD-i games based on The Legend of Zelda. There were three of them and they are all infamously bad so much so that they became memes. Nintendo wants to forget they exist which is understandable.

Well, now those memes have a new game and it begs numerous questions. Arzette has to save her kingdom from a Ganon-like figure through a series of levels tied together on a world map. It’s part action platformer, part adventure game, and all charm. It’s what helps sell the adventure besides Arzette being a no-nonsense princess.

6 Aurora

Child of Light

Aurora is a young girl and the star of Child of Light. It’s more of an RPG than a platformer as enemies that players run into will prompt a turn-based battle. Aurora and her allies can attack with weapons or cast spells, which are dictated by a timeline.

Players can create strategies to knock an enemy off their turn if timed correctly. It was not the first RPG to attempt this gameplay style, but Child of Light would probably have made the game, Grandia, proud. Outside of battle, there are platformer segments along with flying and puzzle sections too so it fits in well enough with the rest of these.

5 Barbara

Rayman Legends

Many fans of Rayman Legends may not know this but Barbara is indeed a princess. She was a warrior princess of the forest before her dastardly enemies took over the land. That’s when Rayman and his pals showed up to help save the day as always in this series.

Thankfully, Barbara didn’t set this adventure out as princesses often do in media. She was ready with an axe in hand and a mighty war scream to terrify her enemies. She controls just as well as the rest of the cast as everyone plays the same albeit with varied animations and Barbara’s limbs don’t eject like Rayman.

4 Gwendolyn

Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir

Gwendolyn is the starting heroine in Odin Sphere but this is an action RPG platformer that has a lot of playable characters. Players will hop back and forth between chapters to see their various stories which all connect in one way or another. Gwendolyn, for example, is a Valkyrie armed with a spear and wings wrapped around her waist and is the daughter of THE Odin as the game is heavily based on Norse mythology.

She’s one of the most versatile characters in the game as gliding around can help bypass a lot of problems. Princesses being able to fly in a platformer seems like a trope at this point. For those curious, players may want to check out the HD remaster of this game, Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir.

3 Leia Organa

Disney Infinity 3.0

• Released: August 28, 2015
• Developer: Avalanche Software
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Android, iOS, Wii U

Leia has been playable in quite a few games including platformers like Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Those early Star Wars games are beyond challenging though as many games were in the 80s and 90s. Modern players may want to check out Disney Infinity 3 instead which was the final chapter in this franchise.

The focus of this expansion was on the various Star Wars eras, so besides Leia, players could collect figures for Luke and Han Solo to then play in the game. Leia was armed with a blaster and basic jumping skills to start, but her character could level up in a skill tree which was quite extensive for a platformer.

2 Momohime

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Muramasa: The Demon Blade is another action RPG platformer from Vanillaware who also developed Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir. This game paired the character count down to two. There was the rogue ninja Kisuke along with Momohime.

The latter of the two was possessed by a vengeful samurai spirit who would not release Momohime until justice was served. While getting possessed by anything is no fun, gaining the ability to run and soar through the treetops is probably exhilarating to Momohime. She also became a blade master overnight which ultimately doesn’t sound like the worst tradeoff.

1 Peach

Super Princess Peach

There is no princess in video games more iconic than Peach. This includes Zelda too who has starred in fewer games, especially platformers. There are a litany of Peach-inclusive platformers to name such as Super Mario Bros. 2, which was the first, and Super Mario 3D World.

Both of those games allowed Peach to glide which was a killer move. Super Princess Peach is the more important game to bring up though as it was her first solo adventure. Players can manipulate her emotions into breaking through gateways in an angered state or make plants grow through tears. The gameplay choices are odd, to say the least for a DS game, but it is still fun and helped pave the way for Princess Peach: Showtime.