Little-known facts about Mario's girlfriend

Although Princess Peach is a familiar face, it took her awhile to make a Mario debut.

PRINCESS PEACH -- Although the good princess is a familiar face to millions of Mario fans, it took her a while to make her first appearance. Mario famously debuted in 1981’s Donkey Kong (although he wouldn’t be called 'Mario' for another year), but the object of his affections wasn’t Princess Peach at all -- it was "Pauline," a damsel-in-distress who’d make just a handful of appearances in Nintendo games. Fickle Mario would switch his attentions to Princess Peach in 1985’s Super Mario Bros. and never look back. [Note: An earlier feature on the Yahoo! homepage incorrectly stated that Peach appeared in a game before Super Mario Bros.]