My 100 Video Game Challenge (2024) #13: Princess Peach Showtime!

Played on: Nintendo Switch

Another surprisingly recent game that I've managed to play through and fully complete this year, seeing as it's just less than two months old at the time of posting, Princess Peach: Showtime! is perhaps one of the last original triple-A offerings to release for Nintendo Switch, as rumours continue to heat up about its now-officially-confirmed next-gen successor. I was originally planning to buy the game digitally with some of my Nintendo eShop funds, but, fortunately, Sarah saved me the trouble by buying her own physical copy of Princess Peach: Showtime!, and lending that copy to me. So, very special thanks to Sarah for saving me the $80 CAN, plus tax with this one! You are utterly fantastic!

Princess Peach: Showtime! is actually the second game to star Nintendo's famous royal damsel, following 2005's Super Princess Peach for Nintendo DS. That previous DS game was a more Mario-style platformer that sported a gimmick of Peach navigating the environment with her extreme mood swings. Yes, seriously. That is a real game, I can prove it, I still have my copy, and even by the standards of 2005, I'm extremely surprised that Nintendo got away clean with a gameplay hook based on a pretty cringeworthy female stereotype. Fortunately, while Super Princess Peach is a bit of a middling game, at least it's kind of fun to chuckle at, for the sheer, comical audacity of what it is.

Princess Peach: Showtime! however is a better conceived, more unique adventure for its eponymous heroine, and one that actually has a pretty fun hook behind it this time. The game takes place entirely within the Sparkle Theater, which Peach attends along with some of her 'Toad' servants. The Sparkle Theater is run by the Theets, a race of tiny, big-nosed humanoids that are all about performing on stage. As much as Peach and her attendants would appear to be ready for a great night at the theater however, it's of course quickly interrupted by all-new arch-villain, Grape, a sorceress that commands the 'Sour Bunch', an army of shadowy rogues that quickly take over and wreck the Sparkle Theater's many productions. With the theater and its plays now held hostage by Grape and her goons, and Peach trapped inside the theater with the Theets, alongside a new sidekick, Stella, Peach thus rises to the occasion by channeling the Theets' finest performers, the Sparklas, in order to don costumes with specific abilities that allow her to strike back at the Sour Bunch.

Princess Peach: Showtime! kind of defies easy classification. It's part action game, part puzzle game, and incorporates small mechanics from rhythm games, shooters and platformers to varying degrees. The game is divided into five 'floors' and a basement of the Sparkle Theater, each of which contains a series of plays that allow Peach to don costumes and battle the Sour Bunch. Many of these costumes are combat-focused, such as Swordfighter Peach or Kung Fu Peach (I'll try to stick to costumes that are on the game box or liberally promoted in marketing, since some of the featured looks for Peach are great surprises!), but others, like Patissiere Peach, are built more around specialized, minigame-style challenges. In any play however, the goal is always to overcome obstacles presented by the Sour Bunch, with players earning 'Sparkle Gems' that serve as the game's main collectibles, when they 'perform' to expectation, either by doing well in combat challenges, solving puzzles, or finding them hidden across Princess Peach: Showtime's stage-style environments.

I have to say that the sheer amount of charm throughout Princess Peach: Showtime! is exemplary. The game's graphics and level design are appropriately colourful, and feel authentic to the stage theme, with level environments showing cardboard sets rotating around, or other theater-style flourishes that keep you immersed in the idea that Peach is supposed to be performing on stage. Even the game's boss fights, which are unlocked after you complete every play on a certain floor, maintain the stage theme by featuring Sour Bunch-controlled beasts that are comprised of theater equipment. It's engaging, but also very lovable, and a lot of the visual touches throughout the game are bound to tickle players of all ages, especially if they're the type to enjoy stage theater in real life.

I also have to give special mention to Princess Peach: Showtime!'s soundtrack, which is excellent! Each of Peach's costumes comes with its own set of diverse, yet equally entertaining music themes, and even outside of the plays themselves, I especially loved the glamourous main theme that plays in any Sparkle Theater portion that you've restored, as well as the jazzy boss music that still feels like it keeps well to the game's theme of stagecraft. Nintendo's flagship characters tend to headline games with superb music selections, and I'm very happy to see that Princess Peach is doing that reputation proud in her own dedicated Switch game.

For all of its charm and lovable fun factor however, it is also true that Princess Peach: Showtime! doesn't fully come together in its final product from a gameplay standpoint. The game has so many otherwise cute ideas fighting for attention that it doesn't manage to do anything in a truly exemplary way. It's all fun enough, but considering that we're coming up to the end of the Nintendo Switch life cycle especially, it's tough not to feel like the game is just missing that extra something to really make its gameplay soar. This is made worse by the game's occasional lack of player feedback, which will be especially irritating to completionists that want to collect every unlockable costume and Sparkle Gem, and the same holds true for its sometimes odd stage structuring. For example, while each stage is about 5-10 minutes long, a nice, agile length that doesn't overstay any welcomes, it's also true that none of these stages have checkpoints, so if you flub a challenge and/or miss a Sparkle Gem, not only will you not always be told how or why you failed, but you'll also have to replay the entire stage just to take another try at whatever you missed. Did I mention that you can't skip dialogue during gameplay in Princess Peach: Showtime! either? Yeah, that's definitely a nuisance when you're repeating stages!

It's also unfortunate that some of Peach's costumes are definitely less fun than others. Again, I don't want to spoil costumes that Nintendo haven't already teased at length on Princess Peach: Showtime!'s package and marketing, but depending on your play preferences, you're bound to have a few favourites, and at least a couple of costumes that you'll hate having to slog through, especially if you're concerned with collecting as much as you can. Some of the gameplay shifts are pretty creative, but like I said, Princess Peach: Showtime! can sometimes suffer from an identity crisis, and that makes it fall short of true greatness. That's especially unfortunate when you see just how much more uniquely and effectively Peach slips into the role of a main character here, to the point where Mario, Luigi, Bowser and other familiar Mario series characters aren't even mentioned in Princess Peach: Showtime!. Honestly, that's kind of nice, because it keeps the spotlight squarely on Peach, and proves that she has plenty of ability to headline and sustain her own game, much more so than Super Princess Peach presented back in the DS days.

More dedicated 'hardcore' gamers will probably find Princess Peach: Showtime! a bit too lightweight to stand out, though more casual players, children and general fans of Peach's character are bound to have a good amount of fun with it. It's truly tough to resist talking about all the cute little moments in the game that made me chuckle, but even when I was sometimes annoyed at its eccentric gameplay design, I never felt like I truly disliked Princess Peach: Showtime!, even if I also wished that there was a bit more depth to its mechanics. Even so, Princess Peach: Showtime! contains some decent extra challenges after you initially complete the game, including some challenge-based minigames themed around certain costume flourishes, boss battle challenges, and even a new hide-and-seek game across the game's levels which, honestly, is more tedious than truly rewarding, essentially just having you play through the game twice, since many of the hidden characters aren't even that well-hidden across the stage scenery. You also need to complete a 'Basement Challenge' for every costume in order to unlock the final boss fight in the first place, though for the most part, these basement challenges aren't that hard to finish.

It took me around 20 hours or so to fully complete Princess Peach: Showtime!, between defeating the final boss, completing every extra challenge, fully restoring the Sparkle Theater's decorations, and unlocking every costume for both Peach and Stella. It wasn't always a smooth experience, but like I said, I did feel amused and satisfied when it was all over, no doubt helped by the fact that I didn't have to pay for the game myself, in this case. I'll have to see how long it ultimately takes Sarah to drive out Grape and the Sour Bunch, and fully restore the Sparkle Theater herself.

If you're a general Nintendo enthusiast that's on the fence about Princess Peach: Showtime!, I might suggest waiting for it to go on sale, or possibly redeeming a Nintendo Switch Online Voucher for it, if you happen to have one of those burning a hole in your eShop wallet. Princess Peach: Showtime! is merely a decent game and not a great one, but it does nonetheless lay out a promising foundation for future spin-off games starring Princess Peach. With some refinement to the game structure and costume mechanics, I think a follow-up to this game could really be something unique and special for whatever the upcoming Switch successor ends up being.

If nothing else, I'm glad that Nintendo finally did better than Super Princess Peach with Princess Peach: Showtime!. This game finally proves that Peach truly doesn't need the Mario Bros. or Bowser to carve out her own unique gameplay identity in the Nintendo pantheon, even if it nonetheless feels like the Mushroom Kingdom's favourite daughter is still going through some growing pains before she's truly ready for the big leagues.

IF I HAD TO SCORE IT: 7/10