Princess Peach finally breaks a leg in her first solo outing on the Switch – Princess Peach: Showtime! The most fascinating facet is that Peach does not disappoint. There are many wild and whimsical levels, masked as plays, offered in the very vibrant Sparkle Theater, the setting where the Princess' journey unravels. Let's unmask this outing and dissect her performance.
THE BLURB...
The premise of Peach's story begins in the Sparkle Theater. This locale is colorful and whacky; truly befitting of the typical scenery you'd find in the Mushroom Kingdom. Despite being in the Mushroom Kingdom, you won't be encountering the usual goombas or koopas. Instead, you will find Peach facing off against the Sour Bunch and helping the kind-hearted natives known as the Theet. These new characters and setting help make Princess Peach: Showtime! feel like a breath of fresh air.
SET THE SCENE
As previously mentioned, the levels in the game are marked as "Plays" that have been overtaken and ruined by the Sour Bunch. The spotlight shines brightly on Princess Peach: Showtime! in this regard. The aesthetics in each level exude "LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!" Every interact-able object on the stage adds to the wooden prop feeling that is traditional of an on-set scenery. These plays are vital as they vault Princess Peach: Showtime!'s strongest quality onto center stage; GAMEPLAY MECHANICS!
GAMEPLAY & AESTHETICS
In order to stop the intrusion of each play, Peach assumes the role of the captured protagonists. Slashing and parrying as a Sword fighter, engaging in baking mini games as a Patisserie, going wild with a lasso and horse back riding as a Cowgirl, or hilariously blending into the background to sneak around enemies as a Ninja; You won't feel a redundancy of gameplay mechanics as there are ten roles in total that you will assume in this adventure. Princess Peach plays all of these roles very well and makes the fulfilment of each feel extremely natural.
Perhaps the best part of it all is, Sparkle Theater is broken up into separate floors that offer a different mix of roles to assume. The diversity amongst the roles will have you undertaking hand to hand combat, stealth sequences, 2.5D rodeo dashes, and even have you pirouetting as a figure skater. One thing is certain, Princess Peach: Showtime! will absolutely saturate you with a variety of mechanics and feels like many games jumbled into one wholesome experience.
THE ROTTEN APPLES?
Where does Princess Peach: Showtime! lack? You will be both shocked and not surprised to find that Peach's solo act truly shows how dated the Nintendo Switch is in terms of hardware. There is a fair amount of loading screens and I'm typically not so bothered by this. I also encountered random object pop-ins and some very noticeable drops in frame rate. While the hardware deficiencies from the Nintendo Switch are well known, and to be clear Princess Peach: Showtime! isn't hard on the eyes visually, this game doesn't exactly do anything to push the hardware to its limits.
Hardware deficiencies aside, another fumble is the lack of Joy-con features. I played in a variety of ways; handheld with Joy-cons, Handheld with a Hori Split Pad Pro, and finally, docked with a Nintendo Switch Pro controller. There was no difference in controller features or gameplay across each mode. Nintendo could have created more immersion by implementing motion controls.
THE VERDICT
Despite those very minor gripes, Princess Peach: Showtime! aims to remind gamers something very crucial about Nintendo; Gameplay is King! In terms of pure fun and gameplay, Peach is very much deserving of a standing ovation! The lasting impact of the story may reside with the individual, but there is no doubt that the impression left by Peach's versatility and the uniqueness of her well-rounded performance makes Princess Peach: Showtime! a tremendous first act for the ages!
Reviewed on Switch – Princess Peach Showtime! is a Nintendo Switch exclusive.
