For years, Super Mario has appeared as an absolute all-rounder and his colleagues only rarely get their own adventures. But in 2024 it will be Princess Peach's turn again and she will be allowed in Princess Peach: Showtime save a theater as an all-rounder. We got behind the Switch and found out for you what unusual powers Princess Peach has.
When everyday life as a princess gets too boring, you go to the theater
The Sparkletheater is divided into several floors and offers pieces with a wide variety of backgrounds. There are stories about master thieves, a cake festival, a ninja village or even mermaids. So it's no wonder that Princess Peach enthusiastically follows the call of an advertising flyer. But that's exactly when Madame Grape and her Sour Bunch gang show up to hijack all the performances and turn them into tragedies. To make matters worse, the superstars of the pieces, called Sparklas (Funkelis in German), can no longer be found.
But the sparkle fairy Stella lends Peach a little of her sparkle power (yes the word sparkle comes up a lot), which enables our pink princess to defend herself against the Sour Bunch and to motivate the actors and the audience again. And as a special treat, Stella Peach helps take on the leading roles in the respective plays. With Sparklepower you become a Kung Fu master, pastry chef, mermaid or master thief. Each role has a special ability to complete various tasks in the pieces. As a detective you can use your own intuition to solve puzzles, while the mermaid can control fish with her siren song.
Variety is very important
As you can already see, things are pretty good when it comes to variety. Not only have different abilities been built in to defeat opponents, but gameplay variation has also been included. In the master thief levels there are passages in which you fly with a paraglider/kite and avoid obstacles. As a figure skater, on the other hand, you have to perform spins and jumps at certain points in order to collect Sparkle Gems.
These collectibles are hidden in every level and are based on the tried and tested Nintendo formula: The majority of the sparkling stones cannot be missed and come into the inventory almost automatically and a few per level are better hidden. For example, there are spotlights (we are in the theater after all) where you can take an elevator to small special areas where you can find coins and Sparkle Gems. Not all of these spotlights are obvious at first glance, so you can spend some time searching if you want to find absolutely everything. There is also a ribbon to find in each level that unlocks new costume patterns for Peach and Stella.
And yes, let's get it out of the way: this game is clearly aimed at a younger and arguably female audience. Peach as the protagonist, patterns and colors for Peach's dress to unlock and a relatively low, frustration-free difficulty level. Anyone who crashes is reset to the beginning of the scene and only loses one of many hearts. And losing all of the hearts only costs ten coins, which are quickly found again. But is it fun if you already thought Mario Wonder (click here for our review) was too easy?
You don't have to be a princess for Showtime!
In my opinion it does! Anyone who appreciates Princess Peach as a protagonist will have fun with Showtime. The charm of the game, taking on the different roles and seeing how they are implemented is incredibly motivating at the beginning. Nice details like a horse that, like all the flying objects, is tied to ropes and the creative use of the theme of “theater” in terms of level staging are nice to look at and make playing fun. But there are no difficulties for the experienced jump 'n' run player and not a single level was not completed straight away. A little more challenge, especially towards the end, wouldn't have gone amiss here.
That would have been good, especially considering the number of levels. There are three levels dedicated to each of the ten costumes, but none of them are too long. There are also extra boss levels in which you have to deal with theater and film props that have been turned into monsters. And if you want to find absolutely everything, you may be able to repeat a few of the levels. An additional element are the rehearsals, which are small high-score competitions for certain costumes.
Overall, of course, you get a bit of playing time. But if you're not interested in the dress-changing and collecting aspect of the game, you'll miss out on a lot of it. The game tracks your personal clothing collection, rewards completely completed levels with “photographer photos” and also offers every soundtrack and every cutscene to listen to and watch again. It becomes clear here that this is not just a bonus, but should really be a central motivating element, but such features are just not for everyone. But here again the reference to the target group.
The Show must go on
When it comes to music, sound and graphics, the game is at the usual high Nintendo standard. Even though the individual songs don't provide long-lasting catchy tunes, everything fits in nicely with the action and the look, with the details mentioned above, fits in wonderfully with the theater theme. It goes without saying that you don't need to expect high-end effects at the same time, because you can of course also expect the brightly colored Nintendo look that we know from Mario, Kirby and Yoshi from Peach.
But when it comes to replayability, Princess Peach – Showtime! definitely a lot of feathers. Even though there's a lot of variety, there's no need for a second playthrough because you can't really miss anything the first time around, except for a handful of collectibles. After playing through there will be little things, but we don't want to give any spoilers.
Conclusion
As a typical Nintendo game, Princess Peach: Showtime! Solid jump 'n' run fare, which is aimed at young gamers and especially female gamers in terms of presentation and level of difficulty. But in contrast to Mario Wonder, for example, the level of difficulty never really increases and in terms of scope, you don't tear up any trees. Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun with the detailed and, above all, varied implementation of Peach's various roles in the Sparkle Theater. However, our rating should definitely be seen with regard to the target group and hardcore gamers should play the demo in advance.
Positive
Very good implementation of the themes of theater and film with many endearing details Princess Peach finally cuts a good figure as a heroine Varied gameplay with puzzles, short mini-games, boss fights and high score elements The collecting drive with collectibles and clothing patterns is addressed Family and child-friendly gameplay
Negative
The level of difficulty always remains very low. Replay value is low. Despite thirty main levels, bosses and trials, we got through it very quickly