By: Christian Roethling and Andrew Hawlitzky
On March 22, Nintendo launched their second game starring Princess Peach in 18 years, Princess Peach: Showtime! Public reception toward the game has been fairly positive, but that’s enough fun and games – what do The Game Boys think of the Princess’ latest excursion?
Christian Roethling––
Here’s the thing about Princess Peach: Showtime!: it’s not perfect, but it does so many things right that it’s hard not to find something to love about it.
Princess Peach’s second adventure is everything that Super Princess Peach – which was released for the DS in 2005 – should have been. While that game likely aimed to increase female representation in the Super Mario universe by featuring a woman as the protagonist for the first time in series history, it ultimately seemed degrading and reductive.
The 2005 title saw Peach traversing its world by using her emotions to interact with the environment, meaning she would need to cry or go into a fit of rage to advance in certain sections, for example – something quite dehumanizing toward women when this is the game meant to put them in the spotlight.
Princess Peach: Showtime! takes a vastly different approach. In the game, Peach must save the Sparkle Theater from the mysterious Sour Bunch, who have corrupted each of the shows playing in the theatre. The shows have become overrun with enemies and the star performers have been captured, leading Peach to team up with the theatre’s guardian Stella to save the day.
Throughout the game, Peach visits a series of performances where she dresses up as the main character in each respective show, allowing her to inherit the abilities of that character. For example, when dressed in the appropriate garb, she becomes an expert Swordfighter who skillfully slashes her way through waves of enemies. The message here seems to be that Princess Peach is capable of anything she puts her mind to, a wonderful sentiment in contrast to her previous outing’s patronizing approach.
From a gameplay perspective, each of these transformations keeps the game fresh and interesting. It’s similar to Kirby’s inhaling ability, but the difference is that Peach’s transformations don’t just change her abilities, they change the entire genre of the game.
One performance might see Ninja Peach sneaking past enemies in a stealth mission, while the next has Detective Peach interrogating suspects to solve a mystery. None of these missions ever go very in-depth; they all feel like they could be the opening concept to a larger game based on each stage, but they still do a great job keeping the player on their toes. While some transformations had stronger gameplay loops than others, none of them stood out as particularly bad, and it’s nice to revisit them in sequel performances as the game goes on.
Unfortunately, as unique as the game is, it makes a few serious missteps that prevent it from ever reaching true excellence.
For one: the game is mind-bendingly easy. It’s very clear what age demographic the developers had in mind. While it’s nice to see a game for younger players, the game feels almost patronizing toward anyone who has any sort of gaming experience whatsoever. It would have been nice to have later levels ramp up the difficulty, or at least include an increased difficulty option for older gamers, but unfortunately the game will simply fail to provide any sort of challenge for anyone who’s ever held a video game controller.
Furthermore, the game is very short, and can be beaten in five to six hours on a casual playthrough. I have no problem with shorter games; in fact, I think they can be a nice change of pace and be far less intimidating than a 50-hour RPG. However, I don’t think it’s quite right to charge full price for a game this short, even if it’s full of love from the developers.
Frankly, I see no reason why this five-hour experience should cost as much as something like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Fire Emblem: Three Houses, each of which take multiple times longer to complete and have far more content for the player.
All in all, Princess Peach: Showtime! is an excellent step forward for the character and female representation in the Super Mario universe. It delivers what it set out to do and vastly improves on its predecessor, but her inevitable third outing will have to deliver a bit more value if it hopes to be a true showstopper.
Andrew Hawlitzky––
Of the two games in the Mario franchise starring female protagonists, Princess Peach: Showtime! is unquestionably the best.
The first game in what might be eponymously called the “Peach” franchise, Super Princess Peach, constructs a rocky and sometimes controversial foundation for the series.
Super Princess Peach’s reliance on emotion-based abilities opens the game up to some stereotypical portrayals of women in games. Some have gone so far as to call the 2005 title embarrassingly sexist, however, others claim that the expression of emotions to progress through levels is not an inherently degrading mechanic but the fact that this feature was only present in the one Mario game with a leading woman makes it a very slippery slope.
18 years later, Showtime! flips the script with a whole new direction for Peach’s controls. In the game, Peach must defend the Sparkle Theatre from Grape using several setting-appropriate costumes which grant her different abilities.
The game’s constant willingness to switch up the playstyle has drawn several comparisons to the Kirby franchise. But unlike Kirby, the level each costume is used in changes to a different genre. The Swordfighter levels are more combat-focused as opposed to the Patissiere levels which are more a design and baking-style game.
Each level of Showtime! attempts something different and consistently takes the game in a different and often unexpected direction.
There are, however, some noticeable downsides to Showtime!
Like Super Princess Peach, Showtime! is a remarkably easy game with very few challenges that can’t be brute forced and requires little to no problem-solving. The level design, though beautiful and artfully thespian, offers the most rudimentary platforming sections. Bosses are exceedingly simple considering that Peach can take 5 hits (or more with power-ups) and all levels are replete with extra health.
The control scheme is exceedingly simple. Players will only need to press two buttons for nearly the entire run of the game with almost no opportunities for combos. The A button is your all-in-one jump and dodge, and your B button uses your special costume-specific ability – usually some kind of attack.
The target demographic for Showtime! seems to be very young Nintendo fans rather than women gamers as some may have predicted. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, however, Showtime!’s child-esque difficulty is one carry-on from the previous Super Princess Peach.
Regardless, the attention-grabbing mixup of genres, the wondrous theatre-aesthetic that pulls the game together and the unapologetically euphoric musical score make Princess Peach: Showtime! one of Nintendo’s best games this year and offers great potential for future games starring the eponymous princess.
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In a world where Peach can be anything she desires, Princess Peach: Showtime! chooses to be an unmistakably fun and exciting triumph for the franchise.