Princess Peach: Showtime! Review | Trusted Reviews

Verdict

Princess Peach: Showtime! is a charming and simple adventure. It’s best suited to young children, with a variety of fun level designs to keep players entertained throughout. A low difficulty level and shallow story will prevent Peach from outshining ventures from Kirby and Yoshi, but it’s still great to see the Princess taking the spotlight once again.

Introduction

Can you believe that Princess Peach has only ever been the leading hero in one game? 2005’s Super Princess Peach aside, she’s been limited to a damsel in distress or sidekick role in numerous Super Mario ensembles. 

Nintendo is putting that right this year with the release of Princess Peach: Showtime! on Switch, which not only has the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom in a leading role, but also without the iconic moustached plumber in sight. 

In fact, Princess Peach: Showtime! feels like a completely different game to the side-scrolling Super Mario series, sharing more similarities to family-friendly collectathons such as Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Yoshi’s Crafted World. 

This is very much a game aimed at a younger audience, with greater emphasis on exploration and experimentation than perfecting your platforming skills. But can it stand out from the ever-growing collection of superb Switch games? Here’s my verdict. 

Story 

• First solo Peach outing since 2005
• Uses the Theatre theme to great effect
• Shallow story and characters

Fed up of the constant kidnapping, Princess Peach: Showtime! sees our heroine take a much-needed break by visiting the grandiose Sparkle Theater. Unfortunately, within minutes of arrival, the theatre is overtaken by an evil sorceress called Madame Grape and her dastardly henchmen, the Sour Bunch. 

Separated by her loyal Toad, and shut out from the outside world, Princess Peach is forced to defeat Grape without her usual allies, although a new companion called Stella is here to help instead. 

Stella, a magical star-shaped pixie, grants Peach the ability to transform into various theatre-themed stereotypes, including a cowgirl, ice skater and mermaid. Transforming into these characters grants Peach with unique abilities, in a similar fashion to Kirby’s iconic talent – although Peach fortunately only needs to change outfit rather than inhaling foes. 

Despite the constant genre hopping and varied story worlds – from the depths of the ocean to alien galaxies – Showtime! does an excellent job of maintaining a consistent core theme, creatively playing around with the thematics of a theatre. 

Every level you encounter is designed to look like a stage production, complete with 2D backdrops and props. Many enemies will even be operated by puppet strings, while one of the major bosses is imaginatively designed around a spotlight. There’s a wonderful level of detail, and that’s no surprise since it’s been developed by the studio responsible for the adorable Yoshi’s Crafted World. 

In terms of actual story, there’s very little to speak of. Princess Peach will meet various characters throughout her adventure, but their one-note design makes them forgettable. Nintendo games aren’t exactly renowned for immersive storytelling, but I’d have appreciated a little more humour to give me a greater incentive to read the tidbits of dialogue. 

Gameplay 

• Very simple controls
• Great variety of abilities and level designs
• Low difficulty ceiling

Princess Peach: Showtime! is clearly designed for young children, with incredibly simple controls and a low difficulty level. You’ll only need to worry about two buttons for the most part: B for Jump, and A to trigger whatever magic ability is currently assigned by your costume. 

When dressed as Cowgirl Peach, hitting B will see her ensnare foes with her lasso, while becoming Kung Fu Peach will see her punch and kick her way through hordes like an amped-up Jackie Chan. There are also a few inventive non-violent abilities too, with Patissier Peach decorating tasty treats, and Detective Peach using her intuition to examine clues.  

This excellent range of abilities helps to vary up the gameplay, preventing things – especially the cake mix – from ever becoming stale. Not every skill is created equal though, with the Swordfighter, Kung Fu and Mighty roles feeling a tad too similar, and Figure Skating lacking the same level of depth. 

It’s a shame that each ability is locked to their bespoke stages, so you won’t be able to chop and change like you can with Kirby games. This makes the solution to every puzzle very simplistic – essentially, just press B – and therefore making it a breeze for older players. 

It’s disappointing that each stage only comes as a trilogy of bitesize levels. There isn’t quite enough time to fully explore the potential of every power-up. I’d have particularly liked to see more time afforded to Detective Peach and Patissier Peach, as their unique approaches were delightful, yet never really blossomed beyond the seedling of an idea. 

Combat is incredibly straightforward, simply requiring a tap of B to smash and wallop nearby enemies. Foes are fairly sluggish in their approach too, and there’s very little variety to keep you on your toes. Platforming is rarely challenging either, besides from the fun horseback segments that up the tempo. And, if you do become overly complacent, a generous life system allows for multiple retries without consequence. 

Instead, Princess Peach: Showtime! attempts to sate more seasoned players with the target of collecting every single collectible each stage has to offer. This is a common Nintendo tactic, with the likes of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Yoshi’s Crafted World and Super Mario Odyssey all making the most difficult obstacles optional, so the younger audience is still able to hit the credits without the aid of an older sibling. 

Unfortunately, Princess Peach: Showtime! isn’t quite as effective as its contemporaries. The difficulty ceiling is incredibly low, so hoovering up collectables is more about persistence than mastering any specific skills. As such, it’s very difficult to recommend this game to anyone but young children and those looking for a casual collectathon that rarely pushes the envelope. 

Graphics and Performance

• Incredible level of detail
• Storybook-esque presentation
• Polished visuals and smooth performance

One of my favourite elements of Princess Peach: Showtime! is the level detail afforded to every single frame. Whether you’re galloping through the wild west on horseback or swimming through an underwater haven, you’ll notice that the background is adorned with hundreds of small details to bring the scenery alive. 

Colours are bold, bright and wonderful, to such an extent that Showtime! often feels like you’re flipping through the pages of a children’s pop-up book. The 3D animations look superb too, and I loved seeing Peach dress up in all of her extravagant costumes. 

Cutscenes are fairly rare, and aren’t as ambitious as they are in the likes of Kirby and the Forgotten Land or Metroid Dread, but it’s not much of an issue since the story is an afterthought rather than the main draw. 

Nintendo’s usual polish is present, with absorbing music, detailed imagery and no performance issues to speak of, despite the Switch’s ageing hardware. 

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