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.