Blair Loveday
Nintendo has some pretty hard games, but one thing I have always liked is their suite of chill games.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a perfect example of this, with chill as gameplay, but interesting and fun mechanics and a world worth exploring. Going into Princess Peach Showtime I was hoping for the same, and in some ways I got it.
The story has our hero Princess Peach who is going to a show at a theatre with a couple of Toads. Unfortunately, soon after they arrive they discover it has been taken over by a baddie called Grape and her crew The Sour Bunch. Princess Peach then needs to go through heaps of theatre stages to stop them and save all of the actors.
When it comes to gameplay, it’s in many ways a pretty standard 3D platformer.
You run around very linear levels, defeating baddies, and saving goodies. The bulk of the gameplay consists of jumping, and attacking, and it’s perfectly fine. It’s so far from bad, but there isn’t anything overly unique here either. Princess Peach unlocks new outfits from different stages that give her different attacks and abilities, but again it’s pretty simple. I got excited thinking it might feel a bit more like a Kirby game, but it doesn’t.
One thing I absolutely adore is the presentation.
The best example of this is super early on where Peach is in her ninja costume for the first time. Going around this level you have her stealthily going through grass where she holds up a couple of leaves to show how she is invisible. Then up against a wall she holds a sheet with the same pattern as the wall. Then when she falls in the water, she uses a reed to breathe as you walk along the bottom. The latter really emphasises the point, where she could just walk through it standing up and just not be visible, but these little details are by far in a way my favourite part of the game.
Princess Peach Showtime is a super easy and super simple platformer. It isn’t necessarily one of the cute games that adults will love as much as children, but if you have had a hard week and want to vege out, then this is perfect for that.
Best of all it’s a great starting point for kids to get into platforming and action games.
Released: February 2023
Rating: G
Platforms reviewed: Nintendo Switch
Genre: Adventure
Developer: Good Feel
Publisher: Nintendo