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!
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!