Review: Princess Peach: Showtime!

Mario might be the mascot of the company and star of his series, but Nintendo have never been afraid to have him share the limelight with his supporting cast. Across several console generations now we’ve seen the likes of Luigi, Yoshi, and even Captain Toad take center stage in their own spinoff titles. However, Princess Peach, who has always been a major character in the Mario franchise, has been strangely left out. Super Princess Peach, released on the Nintendo DS in 2005, was her only claim to the spotlight until now, nearly twenty years later, where she is finally returning to star in Princess Peach: Showtime! But in the twilight years of the Switch, and with so many excellent Mario games already available on the system, does this have what it takes to be another show-stopper?

Princess Peach: Showtime! takes us away from the familiar surroundings of the Mushroom Kingdom and into the Sparkle Theater; a place occupied by a new race called Theets, who put on a variety of stage plays. Shortly after Peach’s arrival the theater is attacked by Madame Grape and her Sour Bunch, who disrupt the plays by confining the star actors of each, setting the stage for tragedy. With the help of Stella, Sparkle Theater’s guardian, Princess Peach must venture into each play, taking on the lead role herself, in order to put a stop to Madame Grape’s plans and restore the theater back to how it should be. As you might expect, there is little depth to the overarching narrative of the game beyond this, but it compensates for this by giving each stage play its own miniature story within the story. The only way for Peach to set things right is to take the lead role, which means acting out the play with herself as the hero and the Sour Bunch as the villains. The story of each play is limited but traditional, making them feel like solid and uncomplicated representations of their intended genre, and there is a nice variety of genres to play through. 

An interesting mix of gameplay styles are present in Princess Peach: Showtime!, which makes it difficult to confine the game to any one particular genre. Like a traditional Mario series title, it is stage-based, with each stage being a short and linear experience where your objective is to reach the end, but the way in which you accomplish this varies dramatically depending upon the ensemble that Peach is wearing. Excluding Peach’s default Princess dress, there are ten different ensembles which will change the gameplay into something beyond the traditional platformer that you might be expecting. 

For example, the stages where you play as Swordfighter Peach are a hack-and-slash affair, where you’ll use precise movements to take out waves of enemies, whereas Ninja Peach focuses on stealth, and you’ll spend your time hiding in grass to sneak up on enemies and take them out with a single blow. Detective Peach is entirely non-combative, and you’ll instead be examining your surroundings for clues to progress. There is naturally some gameplay overlap between them (such as Ninja Peach and Cowgirl Peach both having on-rails side-scrolling sections) but the overall variety here is very impressive. Unfortunately, the downside to this is that nothing feels particularly fleshed-out, and there is some repetition to deal with as well. The more combat-focused ensembles all control very similarly, and due to the brevity of stages, there is little opportunity for the more unique gameplay elements of each to really be explored. 

It’s inevitable that you’ll find some of these gameplay styles more enjoyable than others. Personally, I found Figure Skater Peach to be quite unwieldy, and even if this was by design, it still made stages playing as her less enjoyable. I also felt that there should have been more to differentiate between Swordfighter Peach and Kung Fu Peach, which were both very combat-focused. The fixed camera angles can make the side-scrolling stages quite awkward at times when you’re able to move more freely as well. Fortunately, Princess Peach: Showtime! is quite an easy game, and despite these occasional missteps with its controls, Peach has five hearts to allow for error. There is also quite a generous window of invincibility when you take damage, and health pickups are given out frequently. Losing all of your hearts will result in you being returned to the last checkpoint at full health minus ten coins, and it is likely that you’ll pick up more than enough coins for several attempts as you progress through the stage. 

With that said, Princess Peach: Showtime is not without its challenges if you intend to do everything. Each stage contains numerous Sparkle Gems, and although many are often in plain sight or will be awarded just for completing the stage, some of these can be quite cleverly hidden or require some quick reflexes to acquire. Many Sparkle Gems are divided into segments where the player will need to collect them within a limited amount of time, and it’s easy to miss one during side-scrolling segments. Unless you are particularly diligent, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to obtain all of them on your first playthrough, adding a level of replayability and some challenge for more experienced players. 

Once you have completed the four stages on a floor (which can be approached in any order), you will be able to challenge the boss of that floor. Bosses play out more like traditional Mario platformers, with each boss having attack patterns you’ll need to exploit to expose their weak point to defeat them, getting progressively more challenging each time you do. Sparkle Gems are also required to unlock doors leading to the boss encounters, although the number you’ll need for this is quite low and should come for most through natural progression without the need to replay stages. Defeating the boss will unlock the next floor and next set of stages for the player to overcome. There is quite a lot of content here, with each different ensemble having three separate stages, and although you’ll need to find the outfit in the first stage, the second and third stages leap right into the action, giving you more time to play with their abilities.

Princess Peach: Showtime! is not a long game, and an experienced player will likely see the credits roll after about ten hours. However, the variety of gameplay on offer here means that it could take slightly longer if you’re less comfortable with some aspects of it, and several hours of playtime can be added if you intend to collect all of the Sparkle Gems and find the Ribbon in each stage. Amassing enough coins to purchase the cosmetic dresses from the theater shop could also require multiple replays of stages, and further content is unlocked upon completing the game which could extend your time with it even further. 

One area where Princess Peach: Showtime! truly excels is its visual presentation. There are ten different stage plays to explore, and the only common element between them is the way in which they are presented. The scenery and objects are all elaborate set pieces, giving the game a very unique and charming feel not too dissimilar to the Paper Mario series, or titles like Yoshi’s Woolly World, as giant, colourful cardboard cut-outs give stages a multi-layered feeling, with small touches like strings on moving props making things feel authentic. One element I was particularly impressed with was Princess Peach herself; her animation and the way that she interacts with the environment changes quite dramatically depending on the costume she is wearing, and makes each feel distinct. Swordfighter Peach favours quick strikes with her blade, and I could really feel the weight behind Kung Fu Peach’s punches and kicks. Floor bosses also featured unique and creative designs fitting the theater theme of the game, making them feel more distinct than the usual enemies found in each stage. 

Although the game runs smoothly during gameplay, loading times can be lengthy, and there is noticeable slowdown and lag during loading and transition screens that is quite surprising for a Nintendo first-party title. This does not interfere with actual gameplay, but it is quite distracting when entering and exiting stages. There is an undeniable blur to scenery and character models in handheld mode in particular, which is perhaps a sign that the game is pushing the Switch hardware to its limits. Although colours are vibrant on an OLED screen, and the lack of visual clarity is slightly less of a problem in docked mode, it’s unfortunate that the visuals here are not quite as high quality as other recent first-party titles, such as Super Mario Bros. Wonder. 

Sound design in Princess Peach: Showtime! is as varied as the stages themselves, with each one having music tracks that are vaguely similar, yet have a melody and rhythm suitable for the play in question. Ninja Peach stages, for example, feature more traditional Japanese orchestration as you might expect, whereas Mighty Peach stages have background music that sounds like it comes straight out of a cheesy superhero movie. Unfortunately, the voice acting in the game is limited to only one or two lines of dialogue and voice clips, which feels slightly out of place in stages that are more text-heavy, such as the ones featuring Detective Peach, but this is a common theme in Mario series titles and is to be expected here.

What it lacks in depth and challenge, Princess Peach: Showtime! makes up for in variety and charm, making it an excellent entry-level point to its various gameplay styles for younger and less experienced players. Its appealing presentation style is let down only slightly by a surprisingly poor framerate during loading and transition screens that can hopefully be fixed with a performance-focused patch in the future. Although it never quite reaches the heights of a more focused gameplay experience, the variety of gameplay presented in Princess Peach: Showtime! make it an easy recommendation to make.

8/10

A copy of Princess Peach: Showtime! for review purposes was provided by Nintendo UK.