|
Princess Peach: Showtime! is an action-adventure platformer for the Nintendo Switch. It is the first game to feature Princess Peach as the primary protagonist since Super Princess Peach in 2005. It was first teased in 2023 and was formally announced in a Nintendo Direct later that year.
It was released on March 22, 2024.
Gameplay[]
In this single-player game, players take on the role as Princess Peach as she ventures through different set of stages inspired by plays.
Gameplay style varies by stage, ranging from 2D with roaming to 3D environments and occasional fixed-camera movement.
Peach can utilize a variety of different costumes that give her different abilities. Each stage is made for the specific ones.
List of abilities[]
- Swordfighter Peach
- Detective Peach
- Pâtissier Peach
- Kung Fu Peach
- Ninja Peach
- Cowgirl Peach
- Figure Skater Peach
- Dashing Thief Peach
- Mermaid Peach
- Mighty Peach
- Radiant Peach
Performance[]
The game runs at 30fps, developed with Unreal Engine.[1]
Plot[]
After the wicked Madame Grape and the Sour Bunch take over the Sparkle Theater, Peach and the theatre guardian Stella team up to take it back.
Development[]
The game was first shown in the June 2023 Nintendo Direct, where it was simply introduced as a game starring Princess Peach with no known title. In the September 2023, it had its title properly revealed the costume mechanic alongside an opening cutscene.
The game's development company was not officially revealed until March 21, 2024, when it was discovered via credits that Good-Feel was the developer and that the game was directed by Etsunobu Ebisu. Good-Feel's involvement with the game was leaked from its demo code two weeks prior.[2][3]
Release[]
The game was released for Nintendo Switch on March 22, 2024.
Reception[]
The game received mostly mixed to favorable reviews from critics. The game has a "74" score on Metacritic, based on 104 reviews.[4]
Trivia[]
- The cover art and main visual for the game initially depicted Peach with a similar appearance to how she was usually depicted. In October 2023, it was changed to having a more determined facial expression that resembled that of her depiction in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. This caused controversy among fans due to fearing contentious personality and design changes made to Peach's movie counterpart would be made to her game counterpart. Ultimately, the box art ended up being the only thing changed, with Peach's original design and personality still being used in-game, due to this many deemed it an unnecessary change.
- The change was also compared to an old trend of giving Kirby angrier facial expressions in western cover arts compared to the original Japanese ones. Although in this case the change was made to box arts in all regions.
- After Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario Party, and Paper Mario games' use of live theatre-style appearances, Princess Peach: Showtime! now has a broadway-centered setting.
- Princess Peach: Showtime! is the first Mario game to not feature Mario and Luigi.
- The transformations may have been inspired by or references other popular media, such as Sherlock Holmes, Disney's The Little Mermaid and Frozen, Persona 5, and Ultraman.
- The game was directed by Etsunobu Ebisu, whose last game as a director was for Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. It is his first directing role for Good-Feel.
Gallery[]
| Main article: Princess Peach: Showtime!/gallery |
References[]
- ↑ Princess Peach: Showtime seemingly made with Unreal Engine (Nintendo Everything) Date: February 13, 2024.
- ↑ Good-Feel seems to be the developer of Princess Peach: Showtime (Nintendo Everything) Date: March 6, 2024.
- ↑ Nintendo says to wait for Princess Peach: Showtime's credits to find out which developer made it (Eurogamer) Date: March 8, 2024. Author: Tom Phillips.
- ↑ Princess Peach: Showtime! on Metacritic