Princess Peach: Showtime! Review - A Dashing Debut For A Performing Princess

It’s funny to me how few people remember Super Princess Peach, despite the title being one of the best-selling DS games. A novel take on Mario platforming, Super Princess Peach gave the tiara-clad heroine a talking parasol and elemental powers tied to her emotions. I bought the game for my sister, but as a Princess Peach superfan, I think I enjoyed it more than she did.

Super Princess Peach was criticized for being too mechanically simple, and while I can understand the complaints, I also thought the game overall struck a good balance as far as accessibility and catering to the DS’ larger than usual casual and younger audiences. So when Princess Peach Showtime! was announced for the Nintendo Switch, I definitely expected Nintendo and developer GoodFeel (Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi’s Wooly World) to take the same approach by focusing on younger, female players. What I didn’t expect was for the gameplay to pack so much variety, as this is definitely a title that experiments with conventions, providing a little something for everyone.

Living in the Limelight, Fighting in the Moonlight

Shigeru Miyamoto has compared the Mario cast to a theater troupe more than once, and ever since Super Mario Bros. 3, then later Mario Party, Nintendo has been leaning into the theater aesthetic. Princess Peach Showtime! commits hard to that bit. The game begins with Peach receiving an invitation to the Sparkle Theater, a castle-sized venue boasting many lavish productions. It’s operated by adorable, big-nosed beings called Theets, some of whom play starring roles as the heroic Sparklas. 

Not everyone’s a fan of the theater, however, and some psychic purple gatecrashers led by Madame Grape and the Sour Bunch storm the keep and take over. Princess Peach’s Toads and crown are ejected from the building, and it’s up to Peach and Stella, a floating ribbon which grants her the power to inspire and transform, to fix the plays, rescue the imprisoned Sparkla performers, and restore the Sparkle Theater.

Doing so will necessitate Peach taking on ten different roles, which range from action, to platforming, puzzle-solving, ice skating, and even baking. There are three main levels for each role, with some getting bonus Rehearsal ‘no-hit’ challenges. From the Sparkle Theater hub, you’ll tackle multiple challenges in a variety of dynamic environments, but gameplay is never intimidating, as you’re essentially working with two buttons - Jump and Unique Action. Movement is different between the roles - for instance, you can wall-jump as Ninja Peach and pull off aerial kicks as Kung Fu Peach. You can also strike a pose with ZL on hidden spotlights, which activate lifts to take you to secret backstage areas within each level (necessary for completionists). 

Not all roles are created equally, but I didn’t dislike any of them. My least favorite was surprisingly the Swordfighter, the physics of which felt like Baby’s First Devil May Cry. Baking, while very charmingly presented, isn’t perfect mechanically. I gave up trying to get 3/3 Sparkle Gems on the challenging time-sensitive cake decoration segments. That’s unfortunate as they comprised the only playable roles in the Demo, which left me underwhelmed.

But Floors 2 and up drastically improved my outlook on this game, as the roles and level designs grow more complex and challenging. The Detective Peach levels seem like prototypes from an old-school chamber mystery adventure game. The high-octane Cowgirl Peach levels have a madcap Sunset Riders vibe that’s easy to love, and all of the arcade-like Kung-Fu Peach levels are quite replayable, with some of the game’s best music. Ninja Peach combines the simplest tactical espionage game with auto-running. Mermaid Peach gets to use her singing to control fish for puzzle-solving and participate in mini-rhythm games. The Lupin III-inspired Dashing Thief and Yatterman-inspired Mighty Peach levels - the game’s highlights - are the closest Princess Peach Showtime! gets to truly hitting every mark. They left me grinning and wanting more.

All this Game World’s A Stage, And We Are Merely Players…

Princess Peach Showtime! utilizes the Sparkle Theater as its central hub, and you’ll be traveling from floor to floor in your quest to free the Sparklas. Without spoiling too much, the game does boast several boss fights. In typical Nintendo fashion, these bouts are generally easy if you can figure out the trick to them, but knowing is half the battle. Overall, I found the difficulty of the game mostly easy, but fair. Some levels are punishingly brutal and/or repetitive if you’re going for a Completionist run. Hope you’re good at memorizing levels. I did die a couple of times during the main game, and right from the get-go Princess Peach Showtime! offers you optional extra hearts, which should be great for young ones.

With regards to younger players, I think they’ll ask for an encore. I imagine this would be a good gateway to introduce young ones to a variety of console game genres. There are a few scary situations, such as ghosts, ghost ships, and a Halloween-themed baking level where possessed Theets turn into crazed zombies (it’s not as bad as it sounds). Reading is required, as the game does not feature full voice acting. Long-running VA Samantha Kelly reprises her role as Peach, and while she is generally fantastic, some of the line readings seem different in pitch and tone than Peach typically sounds. Maybe it was time limits, or an odd/experimental directorial choice to try and match Anya Taylor-Joy’s Peach, but some lines unfortunately do stand out.

The levels themselves vary in length. Some take only minutes to complete, while others, particularly the introductory levels for each new costume, have unskippable cut-scenes, taking many easily over the ten-minute mark. Regardless of length, each level will have between 5 and 10+ easily missable Sparkle Gems, which are this game’s chief collectible item. Some are obtained through exploration, others by overcoming challenges. If you collect every Sparkle Gem in a level, you’ll unlock action ‘snapshots’ that showcase Peach’s prowess. You can also collect Coins, which can be redeemed for new dresses (Peach) and ribbons (Stella). New dresses will also appear after certain conditions are met. I liked the offerings, but here’s hoping for even more classic outfits down the line!

This is a gameplay formula worth improving on

Princess Peach Showtime! goes hard in the paint in its final act, delivering a spectacular finale. Nevertheless, I felt myself wishing that there were more levels, as I hit credits at 8 hours without engaging too much in the optional content. For a major $60 Nintendo release, it does feel a bit on the short side, although completionists will definitely be kept busy acquiring Sparkle Gems, tackling the Rehearsal and many Boss challenges, unlocking all of the outfits and ribbons, finding 3 hidden ninjas per level, and investing into decorating the theater. These 30+ levels are meant to be replayed, so it’s a decent amount of replay value, but one is left wondering whether the developers were pressed for time, money, or both, because Princess Peach Showtime! just scratches the surface of its strong concept, and by keeping it strictly a solo adventure, fans of Princess Daisy, Rosalina, and Pauline will be left in the cold… unless Nintendo releases some DLC.

Technically, Princess Peach Showtime! looks mighty impressive, but the dazzling particle and lighting effects come at a price - the frame rate fluctuates at times, and there are persistent loading screens before and after each level, as well as during resets of the Rehearsal levels. Soundtrack-wise, Showtime! continues the recent Nintendo trend of using what sounds like live recordings of session musicians to great effect. I found a lot to enjoy in this game’s jazzy old-school soundtrack, which you can listen to in the menu. There’s also a mode for viewing Peach’s costumes.

The Show Must Go On! (Nintendo, please make this a recurring franchise…)

Even as a major fan of Princess Peach, I went into this title with low expectations, hoping for anything between a fun romp on the level of Super Princess Peach to a modern classic like Yoshi’s Wooly World. What we actually got was something new, a series of Princess Peach variety shows, where Peach is tasked with sleuthing out missing murals and bombs one minute, jumping and twirling in an ice-skating getup the next, and beating up dozens of hapless minions as a Kung-Fu master immediately after that. It’s a winning formula, even if the execution isn’t always at 100% and the final result could have used a little more time in the oven.

Nintendo and GoodFeel essentially just kick-started a new franchise with a strong hook - a role-swapping mix of 2.75D action and episodic story-based levels with a comfy aesthetic. Though it’s a little on the short side, younger audiences, casual gamers, and fans of Princess Peach will find much to applaud. At its best, the gameplay shines, and I enjoy replaying a lot of these levels. Aside from an uneven performance, my only other issue is the asking price. I think this game should be $50 at most, but Nintendo has priced it at $60 because they know little princesses generally get what they ask for from their parents. Here’s hoping we get some DLC down the line.

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Verdict: 4 / 5 (Fantastic)

PROS

• Great variety of control and gameplay styles, with ever-changing levels

• Beautiful costumes. cozy aesthetic, fun jazzy soundtrack

• Lots of replay value for completionists

CONS

• Short overall length as the game ends as it’s hitting its stride

• Persistent framerate dips and loading times

What I’ve Played 

• Beat the game, rolled credits

• Tackled a few of the boss challenges

• Got Gold on all Rehearsal challenges

• Purchased all theater decorations

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