You finally get to play as Princess Peach, in her own adventure! She's out for a night at the theater with some Toads, when suddenly a villain takes over and locks Peach in (and her Toads out)! Madame Grape and her Sour Bunch are ruining all of the plays and holding the patrons hostage, so it's up to Peach to restore the plays and save the day! Of course, she's not alone, as the theater guardian, Stella, is at her side!

Visuals

It's not surprising that Princess Peach Showtime looks amazing. It's bright and colorful, and the theater setting lends itself to a lot of creativity. Each level is set on a stage, so you mainly move left and right, unless there's something hiding in the background or below stage. And all of the environments are made up of things you'd typically find in a stage production. For instance, in the Cowgirl area, the horse is on strings! And the fire is just cardboard! It's very cute.

Peach, herself, has an array of adorable costumes, which was a big selling point for this game. Upon entering each stage, Peach must find her way to a special spotlight to dress her up to play the part! Each costume is so cute, but the figure skater was by far my favorite. It's just so pretty and sparkly! Peach can also buy new patterns for her standard dress, along with matching ribbons for Stella.

The boss designs are also super cool! I absolutely loved all of them! There's only four, as the fifth boss battle is Madame Grape, obviously. Her design was fine, but the others definitely outshone her!

Sound Effects + Music

Peach, herself, sounds great. She doesn't really talk much, but she has a handful of catchphrases and voiced lines. She sounds like Peach, which is all I need.

The music is fine. It didn't stand out to me at all, which tells me it wasn't annoying, but it also didn't wow me.


Gameplay + Controls

The controls in Princess Peach Showtime are very straightforward. You really only move around with the joystick, jump with A, interact with B, and pose with ZR/ZL on special spaces. Yes, B is interact for all abilities. It doesn't matter what Peach is doing, just press B. Usually attack, but other things too.

Even though it all comes down to pressing B, there is a good variety of gameplay types present. Depending on which play Peach is visiting, she faces autorunners, grappling, stealth, platforming, fighting, rhythm, puzzles, space shooters, and more! It always felt fresh!

The level bosses were kind of weird to get use to. Since Peach's abilities are pretty bare with just the single button press, I was confused as to how I was damaging the boss. But then I realized that when you jump to dodge their attack, Peach automatically pulls of a special move to damage them. That makes the level bosses not that fun, since you don't really have to do anything except jump. There are few different boss battles, but the typical ones were all the same.

The main floor bosses are much better! They're still not complicated, but they are unique. You unlock them by clearing each stage and having enough Sparkle Gems. Pretty standard stuff.

One annoyance that I had with the game, which I had noticed in the demo, was a random delay before certain things happen. For instance, you already do whatever Peach needed to do to move on, but then you have to wait before she actually can move on. This is usually waiting for a door to open, but I don't get why it didn't open immediately. At first it made me think I still had something to do. But nope. Just slow.

Replayability

Each level is definitely replayable, if you missed things the first time through. And once you beat Madame Grape, new challenges unlock which require you to play through the levels again. And the game as a whole was such a delight to play, that it's definitely something I can see myself coming back to in the future.


Overall

I'm so happy Princess Peach Showtime exists! I was nervous after playing the demo, but thankfully, it was just a case of a bad demo to not spoil the game. It's so cute and fun!

You play as Takagi Haru, a university student and space enthusiast. He's also one half of his school's astronomy club, along with a girl named Hiyori, who claims to be an alien. Haru doesn't believe her, but then one night while stargazing, a real alien falls from the sky! Ena is a princess from a far away planet, who ran away to live a normal life on Earth. She's immediately smitten with Haru, of course, and who can resist a green-haired hottie?!

Visuals

Sakura Alien is done in vibrant anime style. This one does seem to be more toned down than the others. Hiyori and Ena are very cute, and not over-the-top at all.

I did get the 18+ patch for this one, so I was treated to some extra special visuals. Wink wink.

Sound Effects + Music

The music in Sakura Alien is fine. There's some futuristic sounding tracks near the beginning, but for the most part it's the same style music as the other games. The music does change with every location change, so you’re never hearing the same song for too long.

There’s no voice acting at all. Not even little one liners or sighs. It’s not a deal breaker for me, but I find it does take away from the experience a bit.

Gameplay + Controls

Sakura Alien is a visual novel with very few choices and no additional gameplay. It’s easy to read and get sucked into. Just press Enter and enjoy! There are three endings here, one for each girl, and one for dating both. They're easy enough to figure out.

Replayability

Being a visual novel, Sakura Alien is replayable. Even though there are only a handful of choices, and the three endings only require one different choice at the end.

Overall

Sakura Alien is a cute story. I was more invested in Hiyori's story, since I too believed I was an alien as a child. Her relationship with Haru was really sweet and the most down-to-earth I've come across in this franchise, despite being about outer space.