Pauline Character Profile & Biography

Character fact sheet Name: Pauline (originally "Lady") First Appearance: Donkey Kong (Arcade, 1981) Home: New Donk City Voiced by: Kate Higgins (speaking, 2017–present), Allyson Davenport (singing, 2017–present) Associates: Mario, Donkey Kong (former captor / current friend), New Donk City Hall staff, Cappy

General profile

Pauline, originally credited simply as "Lady" (and as "the Beautiful Lady" in the Japanese Donkey Kong arcade flyer), is Mario’s original love interest and the very first damsel-in-distress character in the entire Mario franchise. She debuted in 1981’s Donkey Kong arcade game as the kidnapped girlfriend Mario — then named "Jumpman" — was attempting to rescue. Pauline thus holds a special place in video-game history as the prototype for every kidnapped-princess plot the medium has produced since, predating Princess Peach’s debut by four years.

For much of the 1980s and 1990s Pauline was effectively retired from active Nintendo canon — replaced by Princess Peach as Mario’s designated love interest — and largely forgotten outside of the original arcade game and the 1980s Donkey Kong animated cartoon. The 2004 Mario vs. Donkey Kong series brought her back in a recurring role, and 2017’s Super Mario Odyssey reinvented her as the glamorous, jazz-singing Mayor of New Donk City — the metropolitan capital of the Metro Kingdom, modelled on 1940s-50s New York. The Odyssey reintroduction was so successful that Pauline has since become a permanent fixture of the modern Mario cast.

Pauline’s modern design — long dark hair, dramatic red dress, white opera gloves, a wide-brimmed pink fedora, and a confident, performative stage presence — was created specifically for Super Mario Odyssey. Her signature jazz number "Jump Up, Super Star!" — which serves as Odyssey’s theme song — became one of the most commercially successful pieces of original Mario music ever produced, charting on iTunes in multiple territories and being performed live at Nintendo events worldwide. Allyson Davenport, who provides her singing voice, has performed the song at the 2017 Game Awards and at multiple Nintendo concerts since.

Quotes

Enemies

Pauline’s original antagonist was Donkey Kong, who kidnapped her in the 1981 arcade game and again in Donkey Kong for Game Boy (1994). The two have since reconciled, with modern appearances treating them as former enemies turned amicable cohabitants of the same shared world. In the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series (2004–present) the Kong is again the primary nuisance — he repeatedly steals Pauline’s Mini-Mario toys from her factory. In Super Mario Odyssey Bowser is her enemy by association, having helped Mario stop Bowser’s wedding scheme. She has no recurring personal foes outside these contexts.

Friends

Pauline’s closest associate is Mario, whom she has known longer than any other character in the franchise — their relationship pre-dates Mario’s relationship with Princess Peach by four years. In Super Mario Odyssey she works closely with the New Donk City Hall staff (Mayor’s Aides who appear throughout the Metro Kingdom) and the New Donk City Festival Band that backs her up during the "Jump Up, Super Star!" finale. She has friendly relations with Princess Peach (the two appear together at the wedding-celebration scene at Odyssey’s ending), Princess Daisy, Cappy and Tiara (the Cap and Tiara Kingdom sentient hats), and — in modern continuity — Donkey Kong himself, with whom she co-stars in Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2, 2025).

Appearances

Donkey Kong (Arcade, 1981)

Pauline debuted in 1981’s Donkey Kong for the arcade as "Lady" — the kidnapped girlfriend whose rescue motivates the entire game. Designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, she appears at the top of each construction-site stage held captive by the ape, who hurls barrels down at her would-be rescuer Mario. The character was given her current name "Pauline" for the American port to Atari’s coin-op machines in 1981, named after the wife of Don James, then-warehouse manager at Nintendo of America — a fact later confirmed by Miyamoto in a 2013 retrospective interview.

Donkey Kong (Game Boy, 1994)

Pauline returned in Donkey Kong for the Game Boy (1994) — a substantial expansion of the original arcade concept into a 101-level puzzle-platformer. The game begins with the original four Donkey Kong arcade stages, then continues across 97 additional levels as Mario chases Donkey Kong across nine themed worlds to rescue Pauline. The Game Boy game gave her a more substantial role with extended dialogue cutscenes and a fully-realised character design beyond the arcade sprite, including her now-recognisable dark hair and pink dress.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong series (2004–present)

Pauline plays a recurring role in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, which launched on Game Boy Advance in 2004 and has produced seven entries to date including Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (2006), Mini-Land Mayhem! (2010), Mini-Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge (2016), and the 2024 Nintendo Switch remake of the original Mario vs. Donkey Kong. In most of these games, Pauline is the proprietor of the Mini-Mario toy factory and calls on Mario to retrieve her stolen toy-line from Donkey Kong. Her character design in these games is a transitional bridge between her 1980s appearance and the eventual Odyssey redesign.

Super Mario Odyssey (2017)

Pauline’s comprehensive reintroduction came in Super Mario Odyssey (Switch, 2017) as the Mayor of New Donk City — the metropolitan capital of the Metro Kingdom. Her redesign by character artist Yoshikazu Komiya gave her a Broadway-glamour aesthetic: long dark hair, red satin dress, white opera gloves, and her signature wide-brimmed pink fedora. She runs the New Donk City Festival, the climax of the Metro Kingdom level, where Mario plays drums and runs through a 2D side-scrolling tribute to the original 1981 Donkey Kong while Pauline sings "Jump Up, Super Star!" live with the New Donk City Festival Band. The song became one of Nintendo’s most commercially successful pieces of original music, charting in multiple territories on iTunes and being performed live by Allyson Davenport at the 2017 Game Awards and at multiple Nintendo concerts since.

Mario Kart Tour (2019–2025)

Pauline joined the Mario Kart roster in Mario Kart Tour (mobile, 2019), her first-ever appearance in a Mario Kart entry. She was given multiple alternate costumes across the game’s six-year run including "Rose Pauline," "Party Time Pauline," "Cowgirl Pauline," "Holiday Pauline" and "Reindeer Pauline." She was classified as a Top-tier driver with the unique special-item the Lucky Seven.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — Booster Course Pass DLC (2022–2023)

Pauline was added to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as a new playable racer in Wave 4 of the Booster Course Pass DLC (March 2023) — the first new Mario Kart 8 character added since the game’s 2017 launch. Her addition was treated as a major event by Nintendo, with a dedicated trailer reveal. She races on a New York-themed reworked "New Donk City" course included in the same DLC wave. The same DLC pass added "Squeaky Clean Sprint" and three other Pauline-relevant locations.

Princess Peach: Showtime! (2024)

Pauline cameos in Princess Peach: Showtime! for Nintendo Switch (March 2024) as a guest performer in the Sparkle Theater’s opening showcase, performing a short reprise of "Jump Up, Super Star!" in front of Peach, Toadsworth and the Theets. She is a non-playable character in the game but her appearance was confirmed in pre-release marketing as a deliberate nod to her Odyssey role.

Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2, 2025)

Pauline returns as a major character in Donkey Kong Bananza for Nintendo Switch 2 (July 2025) — the first Donkey Kong platformer Nintendo has produced since Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014). The game has been characterised as a partial "reconciliation arc" between Pauline and Donkey Kong, with the two co-starring as allies rather than captor and captive. The promotional artwork released by Nintendo at Switch 2’s April 2025 reveal event prominently featured Pauline alongside DK in a hot-air balloon, a deliberate visual echo of the 1981 arcade game’s elevated platform staging.

Mario Kart World (Switch 2, 2025)

Pauline is a default playable racer in Mario Kart World for Nintendo Switch 2, the launch flagship title for the new console (June 2025). The game features a substantially expanded version of the New Donk City course as one of the marquee tracks.

Trivia & Official Sources

• Pauline’s name was given to her by Nintendo of America for the 1981 arcade game, named after Polly James — the wife of Nintendo warehouse manager Don James — who Mario series creator Shigeru Miyamoto met on his first business trip to Seattle. The name was confirmed by Miyamoto in a 2013 retrospective interview published in Nintendo Power.
• Pauline is the very first damsel-in-distress character to appear in the entire Mario franchise — her 1981 debut predates Princess Peach’s introduction in Super Mario Bros. (1985) by four years.
• In the original 1981 Japanese arcade flyer for Donkey Kong, Pauline was credited as "レディ" (Redi, "Lady"). The Japanese name "Pauline" was officially adopted for her return in the 2004 Mario vs. Donkey Kong, twenty-three years after her debut.
• Pauline’s 2017 Super Mario Odyssey redesign was supervised by character artist Yoshikazu Komiya. The Broadway-glamour aesthetic was deliberately chosen to match the New Donk City setting, which itself was modelled on 1940s-50s Manhattan.
• The song "Jump Up, Super Star!" — the theme song of Super Mario Odyssey performed by Pauline at the Metro Kingdom Festival — was composed by Naoto Kubo with lyrics by Nintendo’s Rob Tunstall. It charted at #2 on iTunes in Japan and #14 on the US iTunes Soundtrack chart in October 2017.
• Allyson Davenport, the singer of "Jump Up, Super Star!" and the in-game speaking voice of Pauline since 2017, performed the song live at the 2017 Game Awards, the 2018 Tokyo Game Show, and the 2023 Super Nintendo World grand opening in California.
• Pauline holds the record for longest gap between major character appearances in any video-game franchise — from her 1994 Donkey Kong Game Boy appearance to her 2017 Super Mario Odyssey return was 23 years.
• The Pix’n Love Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros. (2018) describes Pauline as "the original princess of Mario lore" — a deliberate retroactive elevation of her status to match Princess Peach’s.
• Pauline’s "Mayor of New Donk City" political career is the only mainline Mario series example of a character holding a democratic elected office. The 2017 Super Mario Odyssey player’s guide noted in passing that "Mayor Pauline was elected on a New Music-promoting platform."
• The New Donk City Hall building in Super Mario Odyssey features prominently a portrait of Pauline’s 1981 arcade debut design, displayed in the foyer — a deliberate inside joke acknowledging her decades-spanning canon.
• Pauline’s 2023 addition to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in the Booster Course Pass was the most-requested new character in Nintendo’s pre-release survey for the DLC, beating out Diddy Kong, Funky Kong, and Birdo.
• The character’s signature accessories — wide-brimmed pink fedora, red satin dress, white opera gloves — were modelled by Komiya on the 1944 Rita Hayworth film Cover Girl, according to Komiya’s 2018 Famitsu interview.
• In Super Mario Odyssey, completing all four New Donk City music challenges unlocks the second Pauline song "Break Free (Lead the Way)" — a more emotional ballad performed at the Odyssey Spaceship’s second album-release sequence. The song was composed by Naoto Kubo specifically as a callback to the player’s journey through the game.
• Pauline’s "Rosalina-style" cosmic-spirit cameo in the closing credits of Super Mario Odyssey was the first time she had ever shared screen time with Princess Peach in any Mario game.
• The 2024 Nintendo Switch remake of Mario vs. Donkey Kong reused Allyson Davenport’s Pauline voice from Super Mario Odyssey, retroactively bringing the 2004 GBA character’s voice into modern continuity.
• Pauline was confirmed by Illumination directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic to have a guest cameo appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (April 2026), though her role is reportedly minor and limited to a New Donk City flashback sequence.
• The Donkey Kong Bananza Pauline (2025) is the first time the character has appeared in a mainline Donkey Kong platformer since her 1994 Game Boy outing — a 31-year gap.