more like Queen Peach i tell you hwat

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As stated in my last review on Super Princess Peach, I was very excited for Showtime. Like, way more excited than I ever thought I would be. Just off of the first couple trailers, I was enamored by the charm and promise that was being presented, what would essentially be a full game's worth of watching Peach undergo magical girl transformations and exploring different set pieces with her new abilities. I was in it for the style, and nothing else. As time went on (and as Nintendo kept spoiling all of the fucking costumes on their Twitter...), in an unusual turn of events, my excitement only grew. The demo drops, I play it, and I'm locked in, pre-order and all. I got what I came for, and I enjoyed every second of it.

almost every second of it.

Obviously, the costumes are all fantastic. It is such a breath of fresh air seeing such a major character for the series in all these different outfits, especially since Peach doesn't usually get to do much in the first place. Of course she has all of her spin-off designs, but Showtime does so much more with everything, experimenting with all sorts of aesthetics and colors, not one of them failing to impress. That really was all I was expecting for this game, so to move on to the actual gameplay...

It's fine enough? Peach doesn't get much of a moveset, the game only ever utilizes a total of three buttons, and I think they did fairly well with such limited controls. Not every gimmick is a winner (lord knows I never want to play another patissiere level again), but I thoroughly enjoyed what they came up with, the big stars being the detective, mermaid, and ice skater plays. (sorry, ice world bias.)
I have to admit, though, and it never really makes itself known upon first playthrough, but holy hell is this game slow. Again, it's never a problem as long as you can finish up everything you need to in one go, collecting all the Sparkle Stones and Ribbons, but, say you miss one of those collectibles, either by simply not exploring enough or failing a certain task; in order to go back and try for it again, you have to do everything from start to finish a second time. Your newly made progress won't be saved after exiting the stage like in the previous Peach game, so instead you'll have to repeat the whole stage, and by then, you'll notice that most of your time in each level will be spent completely motionless as some dialogue fades in and out of view. You aren't given the option to skip any of it, either. Text is placed on screen by itself, accompanied by animations that you have to wait for the end of before you are allowed to start moving again. As I said, not a big deal on the first playthrough, but it gets excruciating having to see it any more times than once. god forbid you spend 30 damn minutes on the second patissiere level like i did

I see where everyone else is coming from. Yes, Princess Peach: Showtime! can feel incredibly easy, handhold-y, linear, whatever else you might have heard. It is not complex in the slightest, but that's not what I was looking forward to. I was looking forward to the cute costumes and the fun worlds to look at, with the added bonus of some new personality for the princess herself. With such little expectations, of course I was going to have at least a little fun. Not the "game of the year" I was maybe (somewhat ironically) psyching myself up for, but I'd say it's considerably better than everyone else is giving it credit for. Again, though, that could just be my low standards, made even lower after recently finishing a much worse Peach oriented game.

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peach's next smash moveset could be killer if you think about it now holy shit

I have every Borderlands game but guess who comes back to this gem?
This is the OG Borderlands with BL2 being the peak. Other games are just made by otherworldly people who doesn't understand what basic BL fans basically want.
It was fun, with it's humor, gameplay, references and easter eggs. Even after all those years, it still holds up. I have the urge and passion to 100% this game and it's DLCs.
Hearing Tannis go insane over time was fun. And I liked the reference to Diablo 2 with the Rakkinishu boss.

I guess this GOTY Enhanced version are made by the same people who made the other modern garbages as this game has been worked on more than a few times and still has memory leak which forces you to restart the game as you will be getting 3 FPS. Also the dialogues are bugged and sometimes they won't play which causes you to miss out on the story and the missions (where claptrap informs you that there are new missions at a person/bounty board)
And the best bug yet! Clipping out the map and falling to your demise and you don't even respawn until you restart your save.

I played BL1 and BL2 with passion but the other games just sucked the passion and soul out of me just like those dementors from Harry Potter.
I have no hope for the future of this franchise and the upcoming movie.
Thanks a lot for where you've taken this franchise, Randy Pitchford.

The 3/5 is only because I am reviewing the game from a modern perspective and because the game doesn't have much to it, not that it needs anything more.

It's a shockingly fun game, and it's not frustrating at all, which is surprising for how old it is. The game-play loop is good, and I really like the way the game uses time instead of a typical health bar.

I do object to ATLUS having "Jack the Ripper" as the third Jack Brother; he does not match up to Frost or Pyro's wonderful designs and characters. I think this is a fumble that will stain the franchise's past.

If you are interested in this remaster or you are already playing it, I highly recommend these mods:

SNES Sprites
Old Backgrounds
Pixel Font (Video Tutorial)
Total Madness
FFVI UI Overhaul
Old Menu Portraits
Overworld Mobile Tiles
Pixel Art Button Prompts
SNES Battle Numbers

Will give you the real Final Fantasy VI experience, all mods are from Nexus Mods.

Decided to replay the game and 100% it, this time on console (PS5). Graphical fidelity aside, the game still holds up, I still love the game and 100%ing this time was insanely fun. Although most of it was thanks to the version benefits of the speed up and the infinite hp/mp/limit break thing, it was still fun and I didn't mind ploughing through the game in preparation for rebirth. I still hold this up as one of my favorite games ever made, and I wish everyone would experience this on their own terms rather than some who might only want to go through the remake saga.