Princess Peach: Showtime! Review — A breezy, undemanding good time

Princess Peach is ready to command the spotlight in Princess Peach: Showtime! This solo outing for the Mushroom Kingdom’s leading lady has her taking center stage without any sign of Mario, Bowser, or any recognizable Super Mario characters. What starts off as a trip to the grandiose Sparkle Theater quickly goes awry thanks to the villainous Madame Grape, and Peach finds herself becoming a hero who wears an array of different capes. Developed by Good-Feel (Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi’s Woolly World) the game is overflowing with unique gameplay ideas, and no matter how outlandish the escapades become, Peach dives into them with all of the gusto that has made her a fan favorite character for so many years.

Always something new behind the curtain

It’s hard to pin down a single genre that describes Princess Peach: Showtime! To simply call it a sidescrolling platformer like most 2D Super Mario titles are categorized is a disservice to just how eclectic the game is. It’s a true variety show that has you constantly jumping into new gameplay concepts. Platforming, puzzle solving, exploration, beat ‘em up combat, stealth sections, quick time events, rhythm challenges, boss battles, scrolling shooter levels — Peach engages in anything and everything during her acts.

The many different plays which would be performing at the Sparkle Theater have been invaded by Madame Grape and her underlings, the Sour Bunch. Peach jumps into these plays just like Mario leapt through the paintings in Super Mario 64, transporting her to the stage and its unique setting. To weed out the Sour Bunch minions, Peach must take up the mantle of that play’s hero, known as a Sparkla (all of whom have been kidnapped and imprisoned by Madame Grape), donning herself in costume and gaining special abilities.

You’re always getting something new when Peach walks through those doors and onto the stage. Some of the levels are action packed, moving at a nonstop pace and throwing one setpiece after another at you. Others are fairly laid back, focusing on puzzles, exploration, and allowing you to wander about a bit more freely. Things tend not to repeat themselves very often in Princess Peach: Showtime!

Whether Peach finds herself wrangling bad guys on horseback, soaring through asteroid fields in space, or simply chatting it up with the Theets (the friendly characters who work for the Sparkle Theater), her latest adventure isn’t particularly challenging, nor complex. This is certainly not Super Mario Bros. Wonder. It’s much like the titles that developer Good-Feel has become best known for — an undemanding 2D sidescroller that aims to be breezy and charming, even at the expense of elaborate level design. Princess Peach: Showtime! may actually remind you of some of the Ganbare Goemon games, which makes sense seeing as how Etsunobu Ebisu, the original designer of Ganbare Goemon, served as the director and producer.

A whole wardrobe of transformations

The heart and soul of Princess Peach: Showtime! are the Ensembles, the many different transformations she undergoes when becoming the hero of the Sparkle Theater’s plays. Each one dresses Peach in a thematically-appropriate outfit for the setting, and in most cases, comes with their own distinct gameplay and game direction for their respective levels. There are ten primary Ensembles in all: Swordfighter, Ninja, Cowgirl, Patisserie, Dashing Thief, Mighty (a space-traveling superhero), Mermaid, Figure Skater, Kung Fu, and Detective. There are technically a couple more that you eventually unlock, but we’ll let you discover those on your own should you play the game.

When there are this many Ensembles, a few manage to leave a greater impression than the rest. The Detective Peach sections are easily the best parts of Princess Peach: Showtime! Each case is a self-contained little mystery story that plays out like an episode of a detective drama. Peach and her Theet sidekick must solve the case by exploring the level, talking to other Theet NPCs, and discerning environmental clues. Quite honestly, it makes us want an entire game based around concept, with Detective Peach and her trusty sidekick solving cases for familiar Super Mario characters all across Mushroom Kingdom.

Ninja Peach is another standout for its mix of lightning fast platforming challenges and stealth missions. Any Legend of Zelda fan who was fond of when you sneak through the Hyrule Castle courtyards in Ocarina of Time will thoroughly enjoy the sequences where Peach must stealthily navigate past groups of Sour Bunch guards. In the same vein, the pulpy, noir Dashing Thief Peach is equally amusing as she slips past traps and makes daring escapes alongside building facades, over rooftops, and paragliding through the dusky skies.

Some of the Ensembles set themselves apart more than others. The Swordfighter, Kung Fu, and Mighty levels largely amount to beat ‘em up sequences just with different coats of paint, although each is fun in their own right. It’s understandable why Nintendo wanted a wide variety of different transformations, but it probably would have been more satisfying to consolidate some of the ideas and let the best transformations have more screen time than they ultimately received.

As previously noted, Princess Peach: Showtime! generally avoids repetition. One of the reasons for that, however, is the game’s short length. Each of the ten primary Ensembles only has three stages dedicated to them. This means that the less interesting Ensembles never overstay their welcome, but the truly entertaining ones feel seriously short-changed. This is a story that you can complete in only a few hours, even if you take time to hunt down plenty of the hidden Sparkle Gems in each level. Aside from replaying levels to find hidden collectibles, the game is pretty light on optional content. Don’t expect a bevy of unlockable, extra-challenging stages like the Special Worlds of many Super Mario platformers. Princess Peach: Showtime! is undeniably enjoyable while it lasts — it just doesn’t last for very long.

A quality, but not perfect, production

No matter what play and what world that you jump into, Princess Peach: Showtime! comes to life through a vibrant art direction that is always a joy to look at. The premise of the adventure being one great theater production is an extremely creative idea that gives the game an identity all its own within the Mario universe. Each level knocks it out of the park with the aesthetics: colorful, cardboard-like backgrounds, spotlights for dramatic moments, strings attached to moving vehicles, everything feels oh-so-fitting. The same can be said for the various time periods and settings that the plays depict, which are wonderfully realized and never fail to deliver distinct scenery.

Oddly, one area where Princess Peach: Showtime!’s production values stumble a bit is in its performance. No, not the pun-y kind, but the technical kind. It’s especially noticeable during cutscenes, which are often choppy. Framerate dips during gameplay are mostly limited to very action-heavy instances, or those where a lot of characters appear on screen at once. It will make Peach control sluggishly here and there as the animations come to a crawl. It’s a surprising hiccup for a game that we can’t imagine pushes the limits of the Switch’s processing power, not when far more cutting edge blockbusters perform better on the console.

On the other hand, the soundtrack makes no missteps whatsoever. The music in Princess Peach: Showtime! is superb, perfectly setting the mood of each stage play. Several tracks are downright catchy. If you don’t have Dashing Thief Peach’s or Ninja Peach’s themes stuck in your head, it can only be because you muted your TV or your Switch while playing.

The entire soundtrack eventually becomes available to listen to at any time through the Collection menu on the pause screen. There’s a decent chance that will prove more alluring to players upon completion of the game than any number of hidden items or unlockable rewards. If so, that’s far from the worst curtain call that this game could ask for. Princess Peach: Showtime! may not earn a standing ovation, but it does deserve a good round of applause.

Score: 7.5/10