The Stage is Set in Princess Peach: Showtime!
Despite being the beloved ruler over the Mushroom Kingdom, nineteen years have passed since Princess Peach had the opportunity to lead the charge in her own game and this time around, instead of travelling to Vibe Island to save the Mario Bros., Princess Peach is trying to save the show.
What was meant to be a pleasant trip to the Sparkle Theatre, turns out to be anything but when Grape and her Sour Bunch attack, causing our good Princess to become separated from her trusty Toads and beloved crown. Fortunately, Princess Peach won’t be without headwear or alone for too long, for she is joined by Stella who bestows upon Peach the Sparkle Ribbon, an item that enables her to use Sparkle power as she takes to the stage in the Sparkle Theatre’s many plays.
Like we’ve previously seen with Super Princess Peach, Princess Peach: Showtime is another platform-based experience, made simple by the reliance on two main buttons, A for Jump and B for Action, but players are free to swap them around in settings if they prefer. Whether in her basic form or transformed, Peach can interact with Theets, attack enemies and discover secret areas, but when transformed, each specific attire grants her with some showstopping advantages that will see her through each corresponding act.
While there are ten transformations available, with the demo that was released on the eShop, only the Swordfighter and Patissiere transformations were playable. As Patissiere Peach, players are free to take part in a dessert festival by decorating cakes and baking cookies. Whereas Swordfighter Peach leaps into swashbuckling action against any enemy and with speedy reflexes, players can pull of sneaky counterattacks, allowing Peach more time to cut down her adversaries.
In true platformer fashion though, getting from beginning to end is not the only thing players can do when playing through each play, for each stage has their own set of Sparkle Gems for players to seek out and collect. Some of these gems will be rather obvious, but there are a good number that will require players to meet certain requirements and discover secret areas by posing in select places under the spotlight in order be taken elsewhere.
Due to its thirty-minute length, the Princess Peach: Showtime! Demo is only capable of serving up a bite-sized appetiser, but there can be no denying how richly colourful this game is and we can not praise its animation enough. From opening cutscenes to idle animations, Princess Peach is exceedingly animated in everything she does. If you thought Daisy was the queen of sass, you thought wrong as Peach has quite a sassy side herself.
What’s more, whilst Princess Peach: Showtime! might look like a “girl’s game,” it’s simply not the case. Especially when Princess Peach: Showtime! looks, plays and feels like Nintendo’s take on the Shantae series. The only downside we can foresee at this moment in time, however, is the difficulty of the game itself, or rather, the lack of it.
Just like how Super Princess Peach, was heavily criticised for its lack of difficulty, it does appear as if history is repeating once again, as even the puzzles provided in the demo, were anything but puzzling. Then again, with Yoshi’s Crafted World developers, Good Feel, developing the game, it is very possible that the difficulty may pick up in fully completing the game and undertaking challenges. Still, what Princess Peach: Showtime! seems to lack in difficulty, for now at least, it more than makes up for with fun and enjoyment and we can’t wait to dig into the full game later this month.
[…] might ask? Well, on top of featuring the first two stages that were covered in the demo that was released on the eShop earlier this month, two other plays were also available. The first was Cowgirl in the […]