Princess Peach Showtime, a game where you press button A to jump, and button B to win.
Not for nothing, this is actually a well put together thing. It was just obviously designed with a 20-year younger audience than myself. Showtime isn't concerned with putting its playerbase in risky situations (unless you're going for those rehearse gold trophies, those ones actually gave me some shit), or getting them to think a puzzle over. It carefully crafts the illusion that it's doing both of these things through its theatrically elaborate spectacle, but that illusion only exists to fool a younger audience into thinking that all the flashy lights and big cutscene moments mean that they're really good at playing the game. Feel Good's goal is in their very company name: You're here to press that B button, and feel very good about yourself.
I can't say that this sort of design mantra makes for a very replayable experience. I'll give it credit and say that 8 hours of longevity is double the amount that I was honestly expecting, but throughout these 8 hours, you're basically getting shoved from one baby's first platforming challenge, to another. The speed at which it shoves you is breakneck enough that there's a very impressive amount of variety to be had here, and it's a major factor that kept me interested in reaching the credits.
But the ideas at hand are just never evolved enough to mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, not to mention their pace is constantly broken (not broken up, just broken) by unskippable cutscenes. This especially becomes an issue when the post-game introduces a new set of collectibles that basically asks you to re-run every single stage again. But with this amount of unskippable scenes, do you honestly expect me to bother? So because there's no satisfaction to be obtained from the mechanical side of things, your main source of satisfaction will come down to the visual aspect, so y'know, the spectacle. The biggest problem with this, is whereas gameplay depth makes your game more exciting on subsequent runs, visual depth will only carry the first go-around.
Keeping all this in mind, I've still had a very pleasant experience with Princess Peach Showtime. I just don't have any reason to play it ever again. That sucks. But, that's not gonna be a problem with kids. Take it from me, kids can play one game hundreds of times if it looks cool enough, and that's exactly what this game was built for. That mysterious ability to make endless fun out of one thing, that grown-ups like us lose over time.
I really like this new direction for Peach, on a side note. The voice direction stuck out to me especially, cutting away from the over-the-top high-pitched damsel voice in favor of just having her speak like a regular-ass person is a big plus in my book. Also, Dashing Thief Peach genuinely rules, did you even hear this song yet? Her segments were some of the coolest parts of the game, and it makes me kinda wish they made an entire game just around that concept. Kind of like a parallel to Barbie, what this game shows is that Peach can be more than just one person, one profession, one aspect of a personality. And if we can get more takes of that going forward - something with a little more meat on the bone if I'm being hopeful - then I'm all for it.
Not for nothing, this is actually a well put together thing. It was just obviously designed with a 20-year younger audience than myself. Showtime isn't concerned with putting its playerbase in risky situations (unless you're going for those rehearse gold trophies, those ones actually gave me some shit), or getting them to think a puzzle over. It carefully crafts the illusion that it's doing both of these things through its theatrically elaborate spectacle, but that illusion only exists to fool a younger audience into thinking that all the flashy lights and big cutscene moments mean that they're really good at playing the game. Feel Good's goal is in their very company name: You're here to press that B button, and feel very good about yourself.
I can't say that this sort of design mantra makes for a very replayable experience. I'll give it credit and say that 8 hours of longevity is double the amount that I was honestly expecting, but throughout these 8 hours, you're basically getting shoved from one baby's first platforming challenge, to another. The speed at which it shoves you is breakneck enough that there's a very impressive amount of variety to be had here, and it's a major factor that kept me interested in reaching the credits.
But the ideas at hand are just never evolved enough to mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, not to mention their pace is constantly broken (not broken up, just broken) by unskippable cutscenes. This especially becomes an issue when the post-game introduces a new set of collectibles that basically asks you to re-run every single stage again. But with this amount of unskippable scenes, do you honestly expect me to bother? So because there's no satisfaction to be obtained from the mechanical side of things, your main source of satisfaction will come down to the visual aspect, so y'know, the spectacle. The biggest problem with this, is whereas gameplay depth makes your game more exciting on subsequent runs, visual depth will only carry the first go-around.
Keeping all this in mind, I've still had a very pleasant experience with Princess Peach Showtime. I just don't have any reason to play it ever again. That sucks. But, that's not gonna be a problem with kids. Take it from me, kids can play one game hundreds of times if it looks cool enough, and that's exactly what this game was built for. That mysterious ability to make endless fun out of one thing, that grown-ups like us lose over time.
I really like this new direction for Peach, on a side note. The voice direction stuck out to me especially, cutting away from the over-the-top high-pitched damsel voice in favor of just having her speak like a regular-ass person is a big plus in my book. Also, Dashing Thief Peach genuinely rules, did you even hear this song yet? Her segments were some of the coolest parts of the game, and it makes me kinda wish they made an entire game just around that concept. Kind of like a parallel to Barbie, what this game shows is that Peach can be more than just one person, one profession, one aspect of a personality. And if we can get more takes of that going forward - something with a little more meat on the bone if I'm being hopeful - then I'm all for it.