Princess Peach Showtime Review

Princess Peach takes centre stage in this new Nintendo Switch game. This is something that fans have been waiting for. The character has always felt like a supporting actor in the Mario series and time around, there’s nobody else around but her. The game picks up as Princess Peach is visiting a theatre called Sparkle Theatre. During her visit, it gets invaded by a dark entity called Grape who has control over these being called the Sour Bunch.

As a result of Grape’s invasion, the productions at the theatre have now turned for the worst. The Sour Bunch have taken over various roles in these shows and twisted the narrative to their liking. They are also somewhat abusive towards the good guys in the world called Sparkles. So Princess Peac takes it upon herself to save the theatre by visiting the various plays and kicking some Sour Bunch’s backside.

As Nintendo games go, that’s the gist of the story. Princess Peach Showtime follows in the footsteps of other Mario games with a script that is less than an A4 page and that’s okay. The game attempts to deliver a story for each of these plays even if they are pretty much copy-and-paste and rather generic.

Princess Peach also has a companion by her side. Stella is a magical star-like creature that is the guardian of the theatre. Together, the two combine their powers to perform all sorts of acts which tie into the various themed plays across the game. Stella also gives Peach the ability to “inspire” Sparkles who may feel down or don’t have the enthusiasm to complete various tasks.

You can kind of gauge by now that Princess Peach Showtime wants to be a violence-free game. Peach’s ribbon power disbands Sour Bunch enemies and brightens up Sparkles. There’s definitely a trend throughout the game to lean towards happy-go-lucky rather than any sort of violence.

Where the real joy is found is throughout each play Peach enters. They are all well-designed and themed around a certain culture and hobby. The Western plays feature classic bank robbery scenarios with over-the-top train rides and cowboys. The ice-skating play is all about form and precision as Peach has to beat her enemies by stunning the crowd with flips and twirls.

Needless to say, Princess Peach Showtime is a mixed bag of different gameplay experiences set across stage productions. It also helps feed the fantasy that these stage productions are made up of sets. So backdrops of cardboard create the environment and stage lights deliver the ambience.

I enjoyed how well this was portrayed. In a way, it reminded me of Puppeteer from back on the PS3. Of course, much more lighthearted and kid-friendly. The sheer attention to detail was wonderful to see. Especially when the big set pieces took place. The scenes will fill with Sparkles dancing around and various sets moving about. There’s clearly been a lot of thought into how to deliver these stories and gameplay sections with sets and a theatre background.

Peach also takes on different gameplay styles throughout the game. The Patisserie Peach wears a chef’s hat and relies on less combat as she swings above cakes decorating them to satisfy the Sour Bunch. Swordsman Peach is more up-close and melee-focused as she swings through enemies slicing them into thin air. Ninja Peach can then sneak around in tall grass (which is cardboard too) and even pull up a piece of paper while snugged against a wall to disguise herself.

Detective Peach is a play that features no combat at all. Instead, I had to solve a mystery by speaking to various Sparkles and determining who stole a mural. If I accused the wrong person or investigated the wrong item, I would lose a heart. I must also add that Princess Peach adopts the mannerisms of the character and it all delivers an authentic experience that is truly unique from one play to the next.

Sure, some plays are a bit more exciting than others. The detective sections felt a bit too slow compared to the rest of the game and at times, overstayed their welcome. The Swordsman plays were quite enjoyable and the combat is fun, even if it is a bit too simple for its own good. Some plays even provided quite a challenge. The baking one, for example, had me quite stressed out due to its time-crunch mechanics.

Each play also includes various stars to collect throughout the experience. These stars are missable so I was forced to search every set from top to bottom to find them. Some even appear during chase scenes which means you can easily miss them if you don’t take the right path.

I found this quite annoying, to be honest. I wanted to get all the stars in each play to prevent replaying them over and over again. However, these chase scene gets a bit messy and the movement systems don’t always feel great. Jumping can get cumbersome, path tracking is also at times, off. It also doesn’t help that when you restart a play, it resets all the stars back to zero on the said level. You have to collect them all from scratch.

So you might collect one you missed before but accidentally miss another. I had no intention of replaying these levels four or five times. Stars unlock secret levels in the game too so in a way, you’re missing out on content because of a shoddy progression system. Its implementation isn’t great at all.

Princess Peach Showtime has also clearly been designed for younger audiences. Its gameplay is rather simple. Peach can only perform a few movements and abilities per play. Some plays even felt as if they handed me the win. For example, the Swordsman can dodge attacks but the timing window is incredibly long. In a fight, I knew I had to jump on an enemy’s head to stun it. But the game automatically jumped for me. It holds your hand and provides almost zero control over the gameplay at times. Mature gamers might find this annoying.

In the end, Princess Peach Showtime does come out as a mixed bag of tricks. Some plays are more exciting than others while some feature some rather shallow performances. But there’s some fun here for youngsters who have been dying to take on the role of Peach herself. I just wish she was taken a bit more seriously as this all seems like a safe adventure.

This Princess Peach Showtime review is based on a code sent to us by Nintendo. The game is available on 22 March only on Switch starting at R1185.