I am decidedly not Princess Peach: Showtime!’s target audience, but that didn’t stop me from playing it and having a decent bit of fun. However, I think even for children, this game isn’t exactly the cream of the crop.
Peach herself still feels about as blank of a canvas as ever, which is a bit sad since Luigi managed to really become his own character in his spin-offs. It feels like every outfits she dons just makes her ‘act out’ a personality, which is kind of the point, but also makes basic Peach still feel as bland as ever. Only Cowgirl Peach threw in a nice little bit of sass that I appreciated quite a bit. The voice acting was also a bit hit or miss, with some lines sounding great but a lot of them sounding either off or just devoid of any fitting emotion. I am fully aware these are personal nitpicks though, but for Peach’s first game in a long while, the devil is in the details sometimes, at least for me.
Sadly it’s not just the details that are ‘kind of off’. The variety on display with the different roles Peach plays admittedly works well on a first run, since you’re never doing the same for too long. The theatrical aspect of it is front and center, with every level actually being played out on a stage and more complex structures held up with barely visible wires to give that hand-crafted feel. It doesn’t break immersion as much as it keeps it grounded that this is all a play with an audience watching and clapping as we pose. On that note, things could’ve been a bit more… theatrical. More bombastic. It always felt like the climax of a given costume was kind of short and very ‘oh… that’s it?’. The gameplay styles themselves also kind of get old really quickly because of how simple they are, with a stand-out being the detective transformation with mysteries that sometimes felt so laughably easy even a monkey could do it. To give credit where it’s due, I found most of the ‘sword-punch-lasso’ levels inoffensive and brainless in a fun way on the first go, iceskater Peach was surprisingly tight on timing at some parts and phantom thief Peach was probably some of the most fun I had with the game. It’s always fun to some degree, but it’s never ‘a joy to play’, and I feel like that does significantly knock the game down when all it has going for is its looks and fun factor. Despite how writing can be very important on stage, I never expected Princess Peach to have inspiring or surprising scenarios. It’s all pretty run-of-the-mill, Peach coming to save the day as the hero. I was even a little surprised by the ending of the game, since I figured the villain would get some kind of redemption, but nope, not even that, which felt oddly cold for a supposedly kind-hearted character like Peach. (But again, big nitpick!)
Princess Peach looks decent, plays decent, but never goes above and beyond on either front, and that’s a bit disappointing.
Now, on a second run, the stages kind of fall apart a little. When the surprise and variety is gone, you start to notice how many sections kind of drag along, with no option to skip them. If you miss a single collectable, which can be easier than you’d think when you often get locked out of returning to a previous section, you’ll have to start the entire level over again, non-skippable slowness included. With a sizeable post-game that makes you go through all the stages again for some new collectibles, it’s essentially inevitable that if you want to get the most out of Princess Peach: Showtime, you’ll run into this repetition which makes once fun sections a bit of a chore.
To end on a positive note: I thought this game wouldn’t be for me, at all, but I gave it a go because I was impressed by how far they stuck to the theatre theming in the demo, and on that front I was not let down. The outfits for Peach are all quite a sight, the cutscenes looked quite nice and the music was a nice surprise too, quite a few catchy tunes! I had more fun than I thought I would have, but this is definitely one for kids, seniors or Peach fans only.
Peach herself still feels about as blank of a canvas as ever, which is a bit sad since Luigi managed to really become his own character in his spin-offs. It feels like every outfits she dons just makes her ‘act out’ a personality, which is kind of the point, but also makes basic Peach still feel as bland as ever. Only Cowgirl Peach threw in a nice little bit of sass that I appreciated quite a bit. The voice acting was also a bit hit or miss, with some lines sounding great but a lot of them sounding either off or just devoid of any fitting emotion. I am fully aware these are personal nitpicks though, but for Peach’s first game in a long while, the devil is in the details sometimes, at least for me.
Sadly it’s not just the details that are ‘kind of off’. The variety on display with the different roles Peach plays admittedly works well on a first run, since you’re never doing the same for too long. The theatrical aspect of it is front and center, with every level actually being played out on a stage and more complex structures held up with barely visible wires to give that hand-crafted feel. It doesn’t break immersion as much as it keeps it grounded that this is all a play with an audience watching and clapping as we pose. On that note, things could’ve been a bit more… theatrical. More bombastic. It always felt like the climax of a given costume was kind of short and very ‘oh… that’s it?’. The gameplay styles themselves also kind of get old really quickly because of how simple they are, with a stand-out being the detective transformation with mysteries that sometimes felt so laughably easy even a monkey could do it. To give credit where it’s due, I found most of the ‘sword-punch-lasso’ levels inoffensive and brainless in a fun way on the first go, iceskater Peach was surprisingly tight on timing at some parts and phantom thief Peach was probably some of the most fun I had with the game. It’s always fun to some degree, but it’s never ‘a joy to play’, and I feel like that does significantly knock the game down when all it has going for is its looks and fun factor. Despite how writing can be very important on stage, I never expected Princess Peach to have inspiring or surprising scenarios. It’s all pretty run-of-the-mill, Peach coming to save the day as the hero. I was even a little surprised by the ending of the game, since I figured the villain would get some kind of redemption, but nope, not even that, which felt oddly cold for a supposedly kind-hearted character like Peach. (But again, big nitpick!)
Princess Peach looks decent, plays decent, but never goes above and beyond on either front, and that’s a bit disappointing.
Now, on a second run, the stages kind of fall apart a little. When the surprise and variety is gone, you start to notice how many sections kind of drag along, with no option to skip them. If you miss a single collectable, which can be easier than you’d think when you often get locked out of returning to a previous section, you’ll have to start the entire level over again, non-skippable slowness included. With a sizeable post-game that makes you go through all the stages again for some new collectibles, it’s essentially inevitable that if you want to get the most out of Princess Peach: Showtime, you’ll run into this repetition which makes once fun sections a bit of a chore.
To end on a positive note: I thought this game wouldn’t be for me, at all, but I gave it a go because I was impressed by how far they stuck to the theatre theming in the demo, and on that front I was not let down. The outfits for Peach are all quite a sight, the cutscenes looked quite nice and the music was a nice surprise too, quite a few catchy tunes! I had more fun than I thought I would have, but this is definitely one for kids, seniors or Peach fans only.