Peach’s night out on the town!
Before there was the Lío London, a very swanky venue that can be found in the West End on Coventry Street, which opened its doors under its new name back in February 2023, just after the pandemic, there was Café de Paris.
Under the establishment’s previous name of Café de Paris, the venue dates back to 1924 and it swiftly became one of London’s leading theatre clubs, and home to notable performers such as Dorothy Dandridge, Marlene Dietrich, Harry Gold, Maxine Cooper Gombergwhich and Harry Roy.
Unfortunately, when the Second World War came around, the club would be bombed in 1941 during the Blitz. The bombing would cause this heavenly venue to close its doors for seven long years, but Café de Paris bounced back in the most wonderous of ways, going from strength to strength thanks to the likes of featuring performances from Josephine Baker, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Tony Hancock, Grace Kelly and even Frank Sinatra himself.
But now we can add another name of note to that list for another heroine has gone on to perform at this iconic location on Tuesday the 12th of March, 2024, when grey clouds circled above the city of London, a special princess and her brand-new adventure had rolled into town.
In celebration of the upcoming release of Princess Peach: Showtime! on the Nintendo Switch, releasing on Friday the 22nd of March, 2024, Nintendo UK hosted a delightful pre-launch event and we most graciously accepted our royal invitation. What may have lacked in fanfare when the email first hit our inbox, would result in one of the most fun outings we’ve had yet.
So, with Mike stuck in Spain, I took it upon myself to depart the southeast coast of the United Kingdom and head into our nation’s capital, relying on national rail and the underground to reach my destination, but since I arrived half an hour early, naturally, I took a detour to soak up some of the sights of Picadilly Circus and wandered over to Leicester Square.
When it was time to show up and face the music, instead of finding a large lavish entrance to Lío London, located quite tightly packed between Rialto Backstage Bar & Casino and the Shake Shop, was a singular entrance, guarded by a friendly face, accompanied by a cowboy hat and a red t-shirt with a very recognisable logo on the front of it.
With my name on the list, it was time to go in, securing myself a spot on the staircase that would lead us downwards and into the belly of the beast. The walls were black but bright lights lit our way and one by one, or twos for those in pairs and threes for groups, we were given a friendly briefing on what to expect and then, with a more extensive Princess Peach: Showtime! demo to play and five challenges to complete, it was time to get started.
First and foremost, choosing a picture-perfect pose for a Polaroid snap to earn the very first stamp, which was printed off on the spot and given to all the Peach posers to take home with us as a souvenir.
- Challenge 1: Be picture-perfect and get a Polaroid printout | CHECK
With the Polaroid in my pocket, I stepped out into the foyer and the tale of two floors began to unfold. Up above was the land of chill and game as a couple of kiosks were set up, but there were also chairs, sofas and a couple of TVs set up for those who’d rather play sitting down than standing up. One TV set in particular, however, was connected to a Nintendo Switch and two Pro Controllers, set up so that those who need a little break from all things Peach and wanted to play one of Nintendo’s other titles from their multiplayer range, such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Nintendo Switch Sports, had the opportunity to do so.
Personally, this was not something I felt the need to take advantage of as I already have those games on my Switch at home, but for me, this day was all about Princess Peach, so I had no time for anything that wasn’t showtime or ring toss, but we’ll get to that bit, in a bit. Instead, I found the land of chill to be a great place to relax, separate from the growing crowd in the land below and have conversations with friends, new and old.
It was quite funny really, there was a point during the night when I felt like I was an actor in one of the many films set in an American High School, for while I did not know everyone on the guest list, I did recognise a good third of everyone who was there, be it personally or by their reputation. There was even a portion where when talking to some connections, like in an American High School movie, I got to live out that scene where one teenager welcomes the new kid by pointing out the many groups of students we all share a school with, whilst walking through the school cafeteria. Except, instead of covering the Glee club, Chess club, the jocks and the cheerleaders, it was Twitch streamers, content creators and fellow video game journalists.
Of course, the land above had one other glorious aspect about it, a central balcony accompanied by a set of stairs on either side of it, leading downwards and a view that was not to be missed. With Lío London being the doorway into the past that it is, a treasure trove of memories and history, just standing on that balcony, looking down at the kingdom below, made anyone who stood there feel powerful and connected via the passages of time to those who stood there before us. It was a very surreal and powerful feeling, but it was time to grab a drink and get on with the festivities, starting with the ring toss because who wouldn’t want to try their hand at winning one of the cowboy hats and pink bandanas that were available?
With a variety of soft drinks and mocktails on offer, such as the Ninja Peach Belleni mocktail, the Cowgirl Peach Martini mocktail, Swordfighter Peach Cranberry Ginger Fizz and Patisserie Peach Pink Lemonade, naturally, I opted to start with the Cowgirl Peach Martini and I made my way downstairs. Moving past the kiosks that took up the central reservation, shaped in the shape of an “X”, I made my way over to the western frontier, stepping over the cowhide laid out across the floor and grabbed myself a table near where the ring toss was being conducted to do some observing before taking part.
Each attendee was given three rings to throw with the following ruleset in place: Land a ring on one of the cacti on the front row and you can win yourself a bandana, but if you land your ring on any of the three cacti in the back row, a free cowboy hat is yours to claim! In the event you failed to win anything, it wasn’t completely game over as attendees were allowed to try again, but you would have to join the back of the queue and make your way to the front all over again.
As someone who likes to pride himself on their word being their bond, and not resort to lies, I’m not going to sit here and say I won both items first time. Far from it. In fact, despite having consistent throws that always just missed their mark, I didn’t just fail once, I failed plenty of times and I’m not ashamed to admit that I spent the best part of two and a half hours constantly queuing and trying before finally walking away with both items in my possession, but I wasn’t alone in my misfortune.
Not only was I joined by Pete from Rapid Reviews at this point, but for at least half an hour of my relentless pursuit, especially when the piles of hats started depleting drastically, the queue started to be formed by the same eight groups of people, all with the same goal in mind that ultimately we all started talking amongst ourselves, passing on advice and what fun we were having, became even more so. But hey, just like Peter Griffin, “I got my hat!”
- Challenge 2: Step on up and win a hat or a bandana with the cacti ring toss game | CHECK
Now, since I did spend the best part of two and a half hours doing the ring toss, you will be pleased to know that there was a forty-minute window where I needed to sit down, so I did. At one of the many tables with a Nintendo Switch on it, OLED Edition, of course, I picked it up and played through the extensive Princess Peach: Showtime! demo. What makes it extensive you 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 Wilderness, an all-out action-orientated play where players can unlock the Cowgirl Peach transformation and pursue enemies, dealing devastating damage with her trusty lasso. The other play, however, made use of Peach’s Ninja transformation.
Both levels were creative in their design and offered something new to the table that the public demo didn’t. The stealth sections weren’t anywhere as annoying as they could have been and when you can perform a stealthy manoeuvre to take out an enemy, like me, you might suddenly hear an iconic voice cry out “FINISH HIM!” Still, even when all was said and done with the demo and there remained no further secrets for me to uncover, I did find myself torn between two options, keep playing, or move on to something else?
Despite what some haters will prefer you to believe, Princess Peach: Showtime! is a really fun game. You don’t actually need to play it to decide if you need to add it to your collection or not, you merely need to love fun platformers. Having said that, like with most platformers, especially the likes of Nintendo’s own Yoshi and Kirby, Princess Peach: Showtime! is not going to be the biggest game in the world.
You’ll probably complete it in a fraction of the time it took you to complete Super Mario Bros. Wonder and without having something added post-launch, it’s not going to be a game that will retain players months after the fact. Unless, Nintendo do something really crazy and they release new modes of the game that let players play the entirety of Princess Peach: Showtime! as another character like Daisy, Peachette, Rosalina or even Paulina. A guy can dream right? Nevertheless, the demo had been beaten and it was time for a Swordfighter Peach Cranberry Ginger Fizz.
- Challenge 3: Play it and say it by checking out the EXTENSIVE Princess Peach: Showtime! demo | CHECK
With a hat upon my head and a total of three challenges completed, it was time for Pete and I to move on to the next objective, which would be very easy to tick off as we were already in the immediate vicinity of the Cowgirl Peach standee. So, we took it in turns posing next to it and shared our photos on X to earn our fourth stamp.
- Challenge 4: Princess preach by posing next to a standee of your favourite Peach transformation and share it online | CHECK
Still, with one cheeky snap done, one more awaited, so Pete and I crossed over to the other side of the room to join another queue, this time for the green screen. Having had twenty minutes of watching other attendees play dress up, it eventually became our turn to do the same. While Pete opted to become a great detective (here’s looking at you, Pikachu), I channelled my inner musketeer and opted to be a swordfighter. As for our background of choice, instead of picking a background that only matched up with one of us, we opted for a background that benefitted Patisserie Peach and suddenly, a play was born.
A Theet had been injured and the great Detective Pete was called in to solve the crime and so he did. Instead of our perpetrator being Swordfighter Jack in the library with the candlestick, it was Swordfighter Jack in the bakery with his sword and our photo finish was of our final confrontation. Obviously, the only Theet that was harmed, was completely imaginary so the pain lasted only for a moment, but the memory of our actions will last with us for far longer.
- Challenge 5: Hit the Stage! Dress up as your favourite Peach transformation in front of the green screen | CHECK
With all five challenges finally complete, it was time to hit the bar to sample the remaining mocktails and begin unwinding after what had proved to be a very enjoyable and eventful night. With our throats perfectly revitalised, more talking and laughs were hand, we mingled aplenty and after giving ourselves one last half an hour to soak everything else in, before we knew it, we were leaving Peach’s kingdom behind us, and the men’s bathroom that looked like something straight out of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and it was time to return to our slices of normality. It was “Peach time!” for a good few hours but after a long day and a great night, “bedtime” had finally arrived.
