Princess Peach Misses her Chance to be More than a Supporting Character

LIGHT SPOILERS: The following article has minor gameplay spoilers to reinforce the opinions of the author. There are no story spoilers.

Nintendo has been on an absolute tear with their original first party games. The recently released Super Mario Bros. Wonder, has been praised by critics and fans alike, including us at Super Mulligan claiming that it’s one of the greatest platformers ever made. Nintendo’s recent success is not limited to Mario though. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and Metroid Dread all have a case for being the best game in their respective franchises. With the bar set so high, there was a lot of hype surrounding the first, non-remake, first party game released by Nintendo in 2024. Princess Peach: Showtime released on March 22nd, 2024, to mixed, mostly positive reviews. The game delivers on the creativity and polish we’ve come to expect from a Nintendo game, but it ultimately falls short of the other recent titles added to the Switch’s library. Through my entire playthrough, the game felt so close to being something special, but ultimately it relies on curated theatrical moments, and fails to deliver on an engaging gameplay experience.

Princess Peach: Showtime does a lot of things right. The game oozes charm starting with Peach herself. Each one of Peach’s ensembles is incredibly well designed and the way she acts in each of her roles makes her character feel unique from level to level. The set pieces are also a highlight of the game. Each stage feels well-crafted to the role Peach is playing. Many of the stages have opportunities to showcase small design details and highlight the abilities of the different ensembles. The theater style lighting used within each level is done very successfully to convey mood and atmosphere, while presenting the player with a stylistic experience consistent with the theme of the game. Showtime is also packed with curated moments of excitement and epic presentation, often portraying Princess Peach as a total badass. These include some standout one-off sections that completely switch up the gameplay. There are auto-runner, side scrolling shooter, and various boss fight sections that have mechanics unique to those levels. The set design, dynamic animations, and level progression all make you feel like you’re playing through a stage play. The issue I have with the game’s design is you feel like you’re in the audience more often than you feel like you’re the main character.

The scripted moments breaking up each level are a double-edged sword. While they do successfully bring up the level of theatricality and excitement, they also make your experience feel scripted. I very often felt like I was an observer rather than having a meaningful impact on the game. The control scheme is oversimplified to a fault. You can both attack and dodge with the B button so most of the time you can just spam your attack and the game will make you dodge automatically. The game also provides very little challenge beyond some light puzzles, the ‘audition’ side levels and some post-game boss rematches that add additional objectives. For the entirety of the main game, I ran out of hearts one time. When you do run out of hearts, there are very minute consequences: you lose a few coins and move back to one of the multiple check points within the level. The dumbed-down control scheme, ease of gameplay, and little to no consequence for error, put me in ‘brain-off’ mode for most of the game.

To be fair, ‘most’ does not mean ‘all’ and ‘easy’ does not mean ‘bad.’ Depending on what you’re trying to get out of Showtime, it could have a lot to offer. If you’re looking for a laid back, casual experience then this game might be exactly what you’re looking for. This game is comparable to a solid Kirby or Yoshi game, that’s clearly designed for a younger audience but can still provide some value to veteran gamers. The variety of different ensembles and abilities kept the game entertaining throughout my playthrough. You would have to go out of your way to spend multiple levels in a row in the same ensemble, and each time you play a new level with the same ensemble the game does a good job of taking the excitement up a notch. Not every ensemble and role are equally successful though. Some of the costumes stand out as unique and memorable. The Patisserie speed decorating cakes, the Mermaid fish puzzles, and Dashing Thief grappling hook all stand out as creatively designed experiences that make those roles stand out in the crowd. The Ninja, Mighty Peach, and Kung Fu Peach were all fun as well, but outside some one-off areas, all 3 of their abilities basically boil down to a punch attack. And at least one role was downright miserable to play. I hated every minute I had to play as Detective Peach. The levels are slow and tedious, the puzzles are boring, there’s a cut animation every single time you try to investigate something with your magnifying glass, and the game punishes you for investigating the wrong thing… which you would think investigating every option is what a good detective would do. Luckily, the levels are short, and the Detective is an outlier in an otherwise fun and colorful cast.

Off the golden path, Showtime has a few side objectives worth mentioning. The most successful to me are the ‘rehearsal’ levels that are periodically unlocked as you gain access to more floors in the theater. These offer a genuine challenge and require a much more intentional use of Peach’s abilities to hit the gold rank. There are boss fight rematches that add additional objectives to each fight if you’re looking to squeeze everything you can out of the game. Like most games of the genre there’s also collectables found throughout each level that can unlock album pictures. There are a couple performance-based collectables that could be a self-imposed challenge, but I found the pace of the levels too slow and prevention of backtracking too frustrating to bother replaying most levels.

For the most part, I enjoyed my time with Princess Peach: Showtime. However, when we’re discussing a first-party game, published by Nintendo, and released at a price of $60, I’m forced to put it up against games that also fall under those criteria. Showtime is one of the weaker Switch games in that category. I can only recommend this game to a very young, or very casual adult audience. I found myself suggesting my friends and co-workers steer clear of this title, but I told my cozy game loving fiancé that she might really enjoy it. Showtime presents a fun concept that has a lot of potential, but it fails to fully capitalize. Ultimately, Showtime offers more spectacle than substance, and once that spectacle wears off, the value the underlying game provides is underwhelming. I hope that Nintendo doesn’t completely shelve this concept and maybe a team can give a future installment the kind of attention usually reserved for Peach’s mustached companion.