Princess Peach: Showtime! - Switch Review

Princess Peach is taking a much deserved break from overseeing the Mushroom Kingdom and has decided to visit the Sparkle Theater; but alas, mischief is afoot! The theatre has been overrun by the dastardly evil Madame Grape, and it's up to the princess and her newfound friend Stella to stop her. In Princess Peach: Showtime!, Peach enters stage plays and uses Stella's Ribbon to transform into roles befitting the theme. With these transformations, she can foil the enemies' plans and bring back peace and majesty to the Sparkle Theater once more.

The Good

I was a bit of a theatre buff in high school, and to this day, I enjoy seeing a play or two each and every year. The anticipation of waiting in the foyer, the excitement of taking your seat, and seeing the lights go down as hundreds of attendees watch in awe as they're transformed to a wonderful new world; theatre has a certain whimsy and charm to it, if you ask me. And this charm is perfectly encapsulated in Princess Peach: Showtime!. The developers at Good-Feel know how to create a game that takes advantage of a variety of materials (thinking back to Yoshi's Woolly World and Yoshi's Crafted World), and this game is no exception. Sure, the entire world's aesthetics aren't transformed like Yoshi's outings were, but the set pieces, theatre-like props and use of space akin to a theatre stage helps support my opinion that Good-Feel were the perfect developer to make a game as creative as this. This also isn't the first time Nintendo have used a theatre stage in their games. I think back to the GameCube RPG (and soon to be remade) Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and perhaps further to the NES classic Super Mario Bros. 3.

There are a total of 10 transformations, and the variety here is wonderful! In one moment, you could be a ninja being all stealthy, taking out bad guys in the shadows, and the next, you're a graceful ice skater dazzling your enemy with your stunning jump twirls. It all helps balance the experience, allowing for some great variety in its seven-hour runtime.

The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom has not had a shining track record when it comes to her own games, with Super Princess Peach being entirely tone deaf and downright insulting, considering the main gameplay mechanic was tied to her emotions (yikes). Fast forward 19 years and Nintendo have redeemed themselves by finally allowing Peach to take on the role of a courageous protagonist. That's not to say that this modern transformation hasn't happened sooner; in fact, you could play the entirety of Super Mario 3D World as the princess, and we were certainly treated to a much stronger and more independent side in Super Mario Odyssey and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. However, it is in Princess Peach: Showtime! where her modern transformation is complete. Throughout most of the 20th century and the centuries preceding it, many young girls have been told that their future career prospects are limited due to their gender, and it's a shame that this message was reinforced by pop culture depicting female characters as overly dramatic damsels in distress. With Princess Peach: Showtime! depicting Peach as a strong character donning plenty of different roles, from swordfighter to detective and more, it does a wonderful job of being a positive role model for girls, encouraging them to follow their dreams and become the person they want to be. It's a wonderful message that I hope Nintendo can continue to reinforce as Peach's character develops in future instalments.

TL;DR

• Whimsically charming
• Gameplay variety
• Depicts Princess Peach as a positive role model for children

The Bad

While Princess Peach: Showtime! does manage to keep things fresh with its new transformations, you can argue that it doesn't quite get the most out of each one. The controls are quite simple, with the A button allowing Peach to jump and the B button allowing her to either use a skill tied to her transformation or a ribbon swirl when she is between transformations and simply donning her standard dress. While I understand that the game is designed to be simple and easy to enjoy for players of all ages, seasoned gamers (myself included) may begin to feel the game growing stale and repetitive after a few hours.

The gameplay also tends to grow quite repetitive after a while. There are three stages to each transformation, with the third being to save the Sparkla that's tied to the transformation. There are no surprise twists throughout this process, so it all just feels very vanilla as you go from one level to the next.

It's no secret that the Nintendo Switch is quite behind the standard of performance in 2024. Heck, it was only serviceable when the system launched seven years ago. However, one thing we could confidently rely on was that first-party Nintendo games would run near-flawlessly on their own system. And yet, it's really saying something when their first non-remake release of the year experiences some pretty noticeable performance issues. None of these are particularly game breaking, and I'm not normally one to complain about a game not reaching 1080p and 60 frames per second, but the performance struggles in Princess Peach: Showtime! become incredibly noticeable during cutscenes and more elaborate moments. Thankfully, the game runs relatively well (enough) during the gameplay-to-gameplay moments, but when a first-party, level-based game that's set on a stock-standard 2.5D plane begins to struggle, that's when you know that the hardware just isn't up to snuff anymore.

TL;DR

• Can feel a bit basic at times
• Tends to get repetitive
• Performance issues

Final Score: 7/10

I am so happy that Princess Peach: Showtime! exists. It's about time Princess Peach got her time in the spotlight, both metaphorically and literally. And yet, after all is said and done, the game sadly won't live up to the heights of some of her Mushroom Kingdom pals' solo entries. The gameplay is fun but basic; the level design is well suited for each transformation but gets repetitive. The game actually reminded me of a classic 3DS 2D platformer, it would've worked wonderfully on that system, especially with the set designs and the 3D slider (what could have been). Overall, it's a fun time; it just fell a little short in its execution.

Thank you for checking out our Princess Peach: Showtime! Switch review, thank you to Nintendo AU/NZ for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

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