Princess Daisy (Japanese: デイジー姫, Hepburn: Deiji-hime) is a fictional character in the Mario series of video games, in which she is the princess of the fictional region of Sarasaland. She first appeared in Super Mario Land as the game's damsel in distress, a role usually reserved for Princess Peach. Since her appearance in Mario Tennis, she has become a staple playable character in the Mario spin-off games, in which she is often paired up with Peach. It is often speculated that she is Luigi's love interest.^[1][2] Her official description for Mario Party 4 states that she and Luigi have a rumored mutual attraction, more so from Luigi; but Waluigi likes her too, which may cause trouble.^[3]

Super Mario Land's producer, Gunpei Yokoi, wanted to recreate the feeling of 1985's Super Mario Bros., only set in a separate world to the Mushroom Kingdom.^[4] This world would be Sarasaland (sometimes styled Sarasa Land), and Daisy would be its princess. However, later games mention that she now resides in the Mushroom Kingdom,^[5] and Sarasaland is only hinted in Daisy's quotes and biographies for subsequent games. Her early design looked more similar to Princess Peach, except with orange-brown, titian hair instead of blonde hair, a yellow evening gown with short puffy sleeves, white frills, orange high heels, a daisy-shaped brooch, crown and earrings, and wrist-length white evening gloves. In 2000's Mario Tennis, she appeared in game artwork with long hair like Peach, and retained her flower brooch and earrings. This design endured until 2002's Mario Party 4, in which she was given her current design which distinguished Daisy further from Peach by depicting her with more unique physical traits, such as a bob cut hairstyle. In her first appearance, Daisy was described as a tomboy,^[6] a trait which has maintained throughout the games, with Daisy being depicted as a more cheerful and boastful character than Peach. In Mario sports games, she wears more athletic outfits instead of her usual evening gown, her color scheme normally being yellow and orange. Her special abilities are often based around flowers, with the daisy flower being her namesake.

Daisy was voiced by Kate Fleming in Mario Tennis; by Jen Taylor in Mario Party 3, Mario Party 4, and Mario Party 5; and by Deanna Mustard since Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour in 2003. In the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie, she was portrayed by Samantha Mathis.

Daisy's first appearance in a main game of the Mario series was in Super Mario Land released in 1989 for the Game Boy. Daisy is the princess of Sarasaland, a world outside of the series' usual setting of the Mushroom Kingdom, who is kidnapped by the tyrannical alien, Tatanga,^[7] who intends to marry her in order to gain control of her realm. Mario must traverse the four kingdoms of Sarasaland in order to track down Tatanga and rescue Daisy. While playing as Luigi, she was meant to be kidnapped by Bowser as the other damsel in distress in Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, 3, and world, New Super Mario Bros. 1, and 2, Super Mario Galaxy 1 or 2, Super Mario 3D Land, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and New Super Mario Bros. U/New Super Luigi U, but she was replaced by Princess Peach for unknown reasons. Also, she did not appear in Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario 3D World. She next made a small appearance in NES Open Tournament Golf in 1991 as Luigi's caddy. Afterwards, however, she did not appear in another game for nine years, after which she was brought back by Camelot Software Planning for Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64, in order to introduce more human characters into the game.^[8] Since her appearance in Mario Tennis, Daisy has become a regular playable character in the Mario sports games, as well as appearing in all of the Mario Party (only for a while) games (except Mario Party Advance) since 2000's Mario Party 3 on the Nintendo 64, and all of the Mario Kart games (except the Arcade GP series) since 2003's Double Dash!! on the Nintendo GameCube. She also appears in the Square Enix games Itadaki Street DS and Fortune Street. In all four games in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, she is a member of team Mario. To date,^[when?] she has appeared in 45 games; in most of which she is a playable character.

Daisy is also referenced in Super Smash Bros. Melee and its sequel Super Smash Bros. Brawl in which alternate color schemes for Princess Peach take after Daisy's design. She also appears as a collectible trophy in both games, and on a number of collectible stickers in the latter. Despite being Peach's alternate scheme, collectible stickers, and trophy, many hackers on Brawl Vault added Daisy as a true regular, generic, playable character that can hack Princess Peach in the 'Super Smash Bros. Brawl' roster. Once again, Daisy cameoed in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as both trophies: one in Mario Tennis Open in the 3DS version and the normal and Mario Super Sluggers in the Wii U version. There is still an alternate color scheme of Daisy for Princess Peach. Although presented as collectible trophies, Daisy will return as the playable character, hacking over Rosalina and Luma. "Baby Daisy" is also playable alongside her adult self in 2008's Mario Kart Wii and Mario Super Sluggers for the Wii, and 2014's Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U. Like her adult self, Baby Daisy is voiced by Deanna Mustard.

Daisy was one of the main characters of 1993's Super Mario Bros. film, loosely based on the games, in which she was portrayed by Samantha Mathis. In the film, Daisy is a student of archaeology at New York University whom Luigi falls in love with. Whilst digging for dinosaur bones under the Brooklyn Bridge, Daisy is kidnapped by two henchmen of King Koopa, the dictator of an alternate world in which dinosaurs rule, of which Daisy is actually the princess. Luigi and Mario give chase in order to rescue her. Her personality in the movie is drastically different from her personality in the games. Daisy also appeared once again as the prisoner of Tatanga in some episodes of the Nintendo Comics System.

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Reception has been generally mixed across online reviewers.

GameDaily listed Daisy at number eight in a top-ten list of Mario characters who deserve their own game.^[9] GamerVision's "Coop" wrote an article entitled "Top Ten Reasons Daisy is Better Than Peach", giving reasons ranging from her having a "less-annoying voice" and having a "better attitude", to Daisy being a better ruler due to the fact that Sarasaland has only been invaded once, whilst Peach's Mushroom Kingdom is always being invaded.^[10] Destructoid's Gamer's Red Carpet called "her choice of a brave yellow and orange combo dress... as flattering as it is retro", and that her dress and accessories "work much better than Peach's", grading her a B+ overall.^[11]

In 2010, Audrey Drake at IGN listed Daisy as a potential valentine for Mario, commenting that being his "brother's gal" made her a sort of "forbidden fruit", and that he had saved her during the events of Super Mario Land.^[12] GamesRadar's Henry Gilbert wrote that it became increasingly evident that Luigi also needs "his own princess" and Princess Daisy is the character he is closest to.^[1] The pairing of Daisy and Luigi was included in Screw Attack's "Best EVER: Love Stories" video. She was also featured on Susanna Sheath's top 10 Mario characters as her number two choice! ^[13]

IGN reviewed Daisy negatively, giving her a 4 out of 10, as opposed to Princess Peach which got an 8, Rosalina a 7 and Pauline an 8, but said that the "spark between Daisy and Luigi still burns bright."^[2] Lisa Foiles of The Escapist ranked Daisy number one her list of top five annoying princesses in video games, stating she didn't really have a good reason why.^[14] Daisy's counterpart, Baby Daisy, was listed by 1UP.com as one of the worst Mario Kart Wii characters.^[15]