Princess Peach: Showtime Review

GamesRadar

Princess Peach: Showtime fills its short runtime with a tremendous variety of levels and transformations, elevating each with charming details and a surprising amount of spectacle. Its only real limitation is its own lack of ambition, leaving this a memorable adventure, but not one for the ages.

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00:00The First Lady of Nintendo has never really gotten to be the leading lady,

00:03even as Mario has gotten to be everything from doctor to ape-kidnapping supervillain.

00:08And with Princess Peach Showtime, it feels like Nintendo is making up for lost time.

00:12Peach is now everything, a sword fighter, a pastry chef, a detective, and a whole lot more.

00:17Showtime has a light touch of everything too, with platforming, brawling, and unlikely as it might sound,

00:23uncharted-style action set pieces which are spectacular.

00:26The result is a tremendously varied, charming little morsel of a game

00:30that can offer a surprising amount of challenge for those willing to seek it out.

00:34If there's anything holding Princess Peach Showtime back,

00:36it's that it never really tries to be much more than video game candy.

00:40It's satisfyingly sweet while it lasts, but there's not much depth to the flavour.

00:44Princess Peach Showtime takes place on a series of literal stages,

00:48populated by what amounts to an entire race of theatre kids.

00:51The stars of each play have been kidnapped by a group of baddies called the Sour Bunch,

00:55and it's up to Peach to take over those leading roles and make sure the show goes on.

00:59You'll end up in, say, a western play where Peach is transformed into a cowgirl,

01:03roping up a gang of bank robbers,

01:05or an undersea musical where she's mermaid singing to command schools of fish.

01:10Most stages are 3D areas with a little bit of depth,

01:13but which will mostly scroll from left to right,

01:15a bit like classic brawler in Streets of Rage or Double Dragon style.

01:18Whichever transformation Peach has taken on,

01:20she can usually jump with one button and some kind of attack or other with a second.

01:24It's a simple framework, but within those limitations,

01:27each transformation manages to feel distinct

01:30without the whole experience turning into a gimmicky minigame collection.

01:34Each transformation has three separate levels to play through,

01:36and they all follow through the classic Nintendo design system

01:39of introducing a gameplay idea,

01:42slowly making it more complicated,

01:43and then giving you a final challenge to test your mastery of it.

01:46Princess Peach Showtime's real strength is in its variety and spectacle.

01:50Sneaking through tall grass in these stealth sections of Ninja Peach

01:53feels very different from beating up waves of bad guys as Kung Fu Peach.

01:57In one stage, you might be solving a mystery

01:59in the vein of a classic point-and-click adventure game,

02:02while in another, you might be hurriedly baking enough cookies

02:04to hold an army of hungry zombies at bay.

02:07Joyous little details and bits of animation help sell the charm too.

02:10Sprinting along city walls in a ninja form feels speedy and purposeful,

02:14while slicing the ice in figure skater form feels smooth and graceful.

02:17The whole stagecraft aesthetic is beautifully executed too,

02:21with fun little additions like flames made out of painted wood,

02:24or the horses that gallop across the scene as marionettes.

02:27My favourite part is a western stage,

02:29where a giant train whips through a town,

02:31wrecking shops and saloons,

02:32while you ride on horseback across rooftops as they're being destroyed.

02:36Occasionally, Princess Peach Showtime dips into bits of spectacle

02:39that would feel more at home in a first-party PlayStation game than a Nintendo title.

02:43They're highlights every time they show up,

02:45and provide the closest thing to a challenge you'll find in any of the main stages.

02:49If you want to reach the credits,

02:51you'll find Princess Peach Showtime pretty forgiving and breezy,

02:53which is in line with how Nintendo's difficulty curves have worked for generations.

02:57If you want a challenge,

02:58you'll need to be thorough in looking for optional collectibles,

03:01which alternately require you to solve some decently well-hidden environmental puzzles,

03:05or perfectly executing tightly-timed action sequences.

03:08Going for these collectibles is usually more fun than frustrating,

03:11but Showtime's lack of a scene-select feature can make going for particularly tough objectives

03:16infuriating now and then.

03:17Once you've passed something by,

03:18you've usually got to start the whole level again in order to get a second chance.

03:22Princess Peach Showtime is ultimately a stage show,

03:24and it's limited by design.

03:26That's not a bad thing necessarily,

03:28but it does mean the heights it can reach

03:29are limited by the length of the curtains it's drawn back.

03:33Showtime is completely entertaining from top to bottom,

03:35but while it has enough variety to avoid ever becoming boring,

03:38it doesn't have the depth for much lasting appeal.

03:41But hey, in a world where video games are demanding

03:43more and more and more time and energy,

03:45there's something to be said for an experience that cuts the filler

03:47to deliver a polished charm in spades.

03:50Princess Peach Showtime may not be an all-encompassing production,

03:53but the entire troupe has given its all

03:55to make sure the crowd goes home happy.

03:57We give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

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