As a fencer, cowgirl or detective, Princess Peach shows off her many talents and saves the boards that mean the world. Creativity and variety are on offer in abundance in the new Switch title, but if you want to play it you'll have to look elsewhere.
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In show business, everyone knows: no matter what happens, the show must go on! Freddy Mercury and Queen even turned this common wisdom into a song in 1991. In “Princess Peach: Showtime!” This task is yours. To do this, the likeable ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom takes off her pink dress and instead slips into a series of costumes that give her special abilities. As a kung fu fighter, female counterpart to Sherlock Holmes, master confectioner or mermaid, you can expect not only a lot of action and boss fights, but above all creative variety – where in the end the challenge falls by the wayside.
Save the Funkeltheater!
The premise of “Princess Peach: Showtime!” is easy to summarize: In the role of the blonde princess, you would actually like to watch one of the numerous performances in the Funkeltheater. As soon as you want to enter the hall, the nasty Grape shows up and blows up all the performances with her sinister minions. You have no choice but to take the initiative, take the central role in the individual pieces and drive away the enemy invaders.
You will receive support from the fairy Stella, who will give you the sparkling power. With this you can free the frightened employees of the theater or give them the power to open the passage to the next area of one of the levels. The game world is structured on floors, which you gradually unlock and the next floor opens by triumphing over a boss. Ultimately, the theater functions in much the same way as the overworld in a “Mario” adventure.
The floors offer individual levels, which you see from a side perspective, just like you look at a stage. The environments are all modeled in 3D, and you can also move in depth. Each level is assigned to a specific theme, which is why Peach always wears one of the numerous matching costumes. In a medieval-looking world, er, stage construction, you become “Fencer Peach”. In other performances, you put on ice skates and become a figure skater, slip into the role of a cowgirl with a floppy hat and whip, or act as a pastry chef with a chef's hat and apron, baking cookies and garnishing cakes. This not only provides variety on the outside, but also the gameplay is sometimes extremely different and is by no means one-sidedly focused on action.