Princess Peach: Showtime! Review

There is a clear argument to be made that if Mario is the icon of Nintendo, then Princess Peach is its First Lady. While fans can, quite effectively, argue that other Nintendo femmes such as Metroid‘s Samus or Princess Zelda have contributed much more to gaming as a whole, it’s still tough to deny that the ruling monarch of the Mushroom Kingdom has carved out her own legend within the medium - even if her legend has, for many decades, revolved around being abducted time and again by King Bowser. Dude needs a hobby.

In recent years, Nintendo has attempted to make amends for Peach’s many decades spent floundering as a Damsel in Distress, pushing her to the forefront of Super Mario adventures and frequently utilizing her in its cutesy range of sports and racing adventures. Most recently, Peach was afforded center stage in the cinematic blockbuster Super Mario Bros. Movie - voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy and angering knuckledraggers with her Uber-Girlboss attitude, (the very least of that movie’s problems). In the gaming sphere, however, the fair princess has only one “major” release to her name - the 2005 Nintendo DS platformer Super Princess Peach. A miserly resume for one of Nintendo’s most beloved and longest-reigning characters.

But that all changed last month with the launch of the new Nintendo Switch release Princess Peach: Showtime! Developed by Japanese studio Good-Feel under the watchful eye of Nintendo itself, the colorful new adventure is offering Peach arguably her brightest opportunity to shine yet, in a title which will see her of Another Castle finally take center stage… In this particular case, quite literally.

Take your seats, please. Take your seats…

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Peach and Stella will square off against evil diva Madame Grape

Super Princess Peach: Showtime! is a hybrid platformer/action-adventure title with perhaps one of the most comically thin narratives in recent history. One day, while out walking with her ‘shroom-headed subjects, Princess Peach finds a flyer for a local venue, Sparkle Theater, currently running a season of stage plays. Arriving at the opulent venue, the good princess finds that the theater has been overrun by the wicked sorceress, Madame Grape, and her dopey minions, The Sour Bunch. Teaming with Sparkle Theater’s guardian, Stella, Peach must rescue the lead actors (or “Sparklas”) for each play and banish Madame Grape.

As Freddie Mercury told us, The Show Must Go On.

And so, acting as the ultimate understudy, Princess Peach takes the stage in a series of battles against The Sour Bunch, stepping into the lead role of a number of narrative genres including Westerns, Kung-Fu, Sci-Fi, Mystery, and, my personal favorite narrative genre, Patisserie Preparation. As they battle through each new play, Peach and Stella will rescue the theater’s guests and staff, utilizing the gift of “Sparkle Power” - essentially the most convenient “do-all” magic since the MCU interpretation of The Scarlet Witch. At some point during each play, Peach will don the costume of its protagonist, affording her unique movement, skill, and attack properties.

This quick-change system is the core mechanic of Showtime! as Peach springs into action in the form of a ninja, a cowgirl, a battle-suited superhero, an ace detective, a mermaid, and much more - with a grand total of 10 transformations to be uncovered. As Peach progresses through each floor of the grand theater, she will battle the baddies, gather up Sparkle Stars, defeat boss characters, and rescue each of the original cast members, all en route to the showdown with Madame Grape herself - who is preparing to cast Peach in the “Ultimate Tragedy”.

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(1 of 2) Creative, colorful visuals bring each stage show to life, from creepy castles

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Creative, colorful visuals bring each stage show to life, from creepy castles (left), to fantastic frostings (right)

Though Princess Peach: Showtime! is very much a platformer at heart, there is a variety in design that attempts to keep the adventure from feeling too monotonous. While standard “left-to-right” action forms the majority of gameplay, the frequent interjection of setpieces such as auto-scrollers, shmup stages, mid-boss battles, and even bakery mini-games all look to keep the simplistic action from getting a little too repetitive. The Detective stages feature fun little mysteries to be solved, with the Ice Skater stages boasting delightfully animated skating mechanics and heartwarming dance numbers. In Showtime! creativity and design are used to mask what is, ultimately, formative gameplay. This is where personality and creativity shines brightest, with cardboard props, cheap special effects, creative lighting, and rotating sets and backdrops giving form to the adventure’s “stage show” aesthetic. There is an adherence to magic, majesty, and whimsy on display at every turn, and it is impossible not to be completely charmed by Showtime!’s sense of personality.

It should be clearly noted that Showtime!’s gameplay is relatively basic, and the game as a whole is most definitely geared toward a younger demographic. What is offered here is not, for example, a Peach-led Super Mario Bros. adventure. Showtime! is its own compact entity, which has recognizable elements from its source series, but generally offers a simpler, more light-hearted adventure - providing only the mildest of challenges for seasoned veterans, but tuned suitably for a younger or less experienced audience.

That isn’t to say that there isn’t fun to be had by all, and even those players who can “tread the boards” with ease will still find themselves swept up in the feel-good nature of it all. The combat-focused Ninja and Kung-Fu levels are fun, while the Ice Skater and Mermaid stages will melt even the hardest heart. Creative boss fights - including a battle against a terrifying “Purrjector” and a stage that verbatim rips-off Batman: Arkham Asylum - help to shake up any creeping sense of monotony. Showtime! is rarely challenging, and frequently threatens to become samey, but its sense of storybook magic shines throughout.

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(1 of 2) Keep our gals great with a range of unlockable dresses

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Keep our gals great with a range of unlockable dresses (left), and ribbons (right)

Showtime! sounds as good as it looks, with a gorgeous soundtrack that effectively adapts to each stage’s genre. The Kabuki-like instruments of the Ninja stage give way to pompous overtures for the Sci-Fi battles. The Dashing Thief encounters, (by far my favorite of all the transformations), are accompanied by an undeniable Lupin III tribute score, while the western sections are backed with the sounds of a rootin’-tootin’ adventure. Much like the excellent Super Mario Bros. Wonder, efforts have been made to marry music directly to gameplay, and the Ice Skater and Mermaid stages feature a smart blend of their music, visuals, and player interaction to add vibrancy to the fairly ordinary action.

Despite this audio/visual splendor, however, Princess Peach: Showtime! does falter in several ways. One of the core problems, ironically, lies with Peach herself, and it is such an unfortunate irony that in a game that affords her so many different characters, costumes, and gimmicks, the Princess struggles to have any personality herself. Bizarrely, Peach is the blandest of all featured characters, often feeling like an empty avatar on which the various costumes have been dropped. Simply adding some conversational dialogue would help prevent this but, instead, Peach simply stands blank-eyed while the other cast members do the talking for her. Peach has dynamism and charisma once she dons her various stage costumes but - as Peach herself - she almost feels interchangeable with any other protagonist in the Super Mario Bros. catalog.

This is her game, but it isn’t her game, so to speak.

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(1 of 2) Transformative costumes offer Peach new gimmicks, such as Persona 5

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Transformative costumes offer Peach new gimmicks, such as Persona 5 (left), and Tonya Harding (right)

Nintendo Switch performance woes also rear their ugly head, as Showtime! features a mildly stuttery flow. The frame rate never dips to the point that it affects gameplay, but it’s frustrating that a title so attractive, yet so simple, still finds itself sweating a little during busier periods. It’s 2024, and when Nintendo finally pulls the trigger on new hardware, it needs to ensure that even its most modest of adventures runs silky smooth, with a healthy reduction in load times to boot. Importantly, however, these issues do not affect Showtime!‘s grand finale, which might be the most visually intensive of the adventure’s setpieces.

Princess Peach Showtime!‘s story can be easily completed in around eight hours. Longevity is offered in the form of ensuring each stage has had all its secrets revealed, while unlockable “Rehearsals” allow the player to attempt bespoke challenges for each transformation. An unlockable Boss Battle mode sees major encounters replayed with new targets to beat, while leftover currency can be spent on decorations to spruce up Sparkle Theater. In North America, Showtime! retails at a recommended price tag of $60, which is an extremely tough ask for a weekend of entertainment. There is assuredly fun to be had here, but that is a chunk o’ change in a season of excellent releases.

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(1 of 2) Each play is punctuated with creative boss battles

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Each play is punctuated with creative boss battles (left), and cute mini-games (right)

Attempting to replicate the distinctive flavor of a first-party Nintendo title is an unenviable task, and Good-Feel should be applauded for successfully capturing the legendary studio’s unique sense of charm, magic, and wonder. Familiar themes and mechanics from core Nintendo titles are readily notable in Showtime! - from colorful, inventive worlds, to secret rooms and pathways, creative boss battles, the gathering of coins and hidden pickups, spookier elements, (including the now-common “Nintendo Jump Scare”), and, of course, communities of panicking idiots in dire need. Bespoke sidekick Stella is a very cute creation, and comes into her own as a character despite not having all that much integration in the action. While Princess Peach: Showtime! is not a Nintendo-developed title, it is authentically comparable to the studio’s first-party output. And, given Good-Feel’s thin resume, this is certainly to be recognized.

Princess Peach: Showtime! doesn’t quite suffice as the leading lady performance our Mushroom Monarch deserves, but there’s no denying its infectious charm and cheerful sense of creativity. While Showtime! doesn’t quite match up to the escapades of her plumber pals, this spirited adventure - punctuated by heartwarming visuals, fun and varied stages, and a superb score, is worth a weekend of anyone’s time. It serves as a fun precursor to what could become a solid new franchise, as well as being an innocent reminder that, in a market dominated by po-faced, dramatic, 100-hour epics, we all came here to Play Games. Encore!

This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer.