Pauline (Nintendo character)

Pauline (ポリーン) is a fictional character from the Mario video game franchise, owned by Nintendo and created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. The lead female character from the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, she first appeared in Donkey Kong as the damsel in distress, being held captive by Donkey Kong at the top of a large construction site.

Name
Pauline was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and other developers for the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong as the earliest example of a female with a speaking role in a video game, and is cited as a famous example of a damsel in distress in fiction. Originally, Pauline was known as Lady, (レディ) and the game introduced her as Mario's girlfriend. The name Pauline was given after the then-girlfriend of Nintendo of America's warehouse manager, Don James. Then it was used in licensed products after the game's release (including a collection of figures by Coleco and a coloring book ), and was eventually used for the NES version of the game, although print ads for the Game & Watch version of the game refer to her as Louise.

Role
Since Super Mario Odyssey, she serves as the singer of the band The Super Mario Players and the Mayor of New Donk City and is a supporting character, helping Mario with his quest. Producer Yoshiaki Koizumi told Polygon that she sang the game's theme song, "Jump Up, Super Star!" noting "As we were developing Pauline more as a character, we know that she was going to be interested in jazz...It was interesting for us to have the first song in a Mario game with vocals."

Appearances
Pauline debuted in Donkey Kong (1981) as Mario's love interest. Donkey Kong (1994) for Game Boy, where she continues to be the typical damsel in distress. However, since that point, she didn't reappear for awhile and was supposedly replaced by Princess Peach. This was until here reintroduction in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, where she reprised her role in Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis for the Nintendo DS in 2006. She would then continue to appear in all of it's sequels, including getting her mini toy in Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem, until 2015. In 2017, Super Mario Odyssey marked her return to the original series, serving as the mayor of New Donk City as well as singer for the songs Jump Up, Super Star!" and "Break Free (Lead The Way)." This version of the character reappeared in both Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Kart Tour in 2019 as a playable character.

Other appearances
Outside of the Mario franchise, Pauline was mainly seen through reappearances of her arcade sprite in games such as the Game & Watch Collection, NES Remix and WarioWare Gold, Pinball and Famicom BASIC. In the Super Smash Bros. series, she along with her band appear on the New Donk City stage, where by interacting with them, can add extra instruments and vocals to the music. In March 2019, Pauline made her playable debut in Mario Tennis Aces.

Reception
IGN reviewed Pauline positively, giving her an 8 out of 10. The song "Jump Up, Super Star!" debuted at number 33 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 for the week of November 11, 2017. Super Mario Odyssey won "Best Original Music" in IGN's Best of 2017, praising the song by stating that it is an "immediate earworm that brilliantly capitalizes on the legacy of the Mario franchise while also standing out as a new approach to music for the series." Kate Higgins performed "Jump Up, Super Star!" during the 2017 Game Awards ceremony.

Many originally criticized her limited role as helpless damsel who became forgotten by Nintendo. To rectify this, in 2012, a man re-modded the original Donkey Kong arcade game to allow players to play as Pauline instead of Jumpman, to please his three-year-old daughter. The father, Mika Mika, explained that his daughter wanted to play as a girl character, but was unable to due the lack of female playable characters in early video games. The modding efforts help to spark interest in female characters in gaming across social media, in sighting video game expert Scott Steinberg to say that developers should "wake up and realize that there is a broader audience," hoping that they can expand the general gaming community.

After her reappearance in Super Mario Odyssey, her character was praised for overcoming the damsel-in-distress trait into becoming a "woman of power." Timothy Grills of Medium, appreciated how Pauline's appearance had become more empowered and fleshed out compared to her older iterations. In particular, he noted how Pauline's pantsuit mirrored that of American politician Hillary Clinton, giving credence to the idea that Pauline had become a powerful leader of New Donk City. Bleeding Cool wrote about how it was a "big deal" for Pauline's sudden return, pointing out how she has finally been given a voice after nearly four decades, feeling that is an injustice that she has been negated to just a plot point all that time, citing it as "one hell of a patriarchy-smashing comeback."