How Good Is Princess Peach Showtime?

Princess Peach stars in a brand new Nintendo game as she sets out to enjoy a night at the theater and ends up having to save it instead. In her first game since the DS, Peach now is suiting up and taking on different roles in order to take on the newest villain in the Mario franchise, Madam Grape.

I love that Peach gets another chance to shine in a game (that does not revolve around extreme emotions) and that she is doing everything on her own with the help of Stella, the adorable little savior of the theatre. Having her own outfits gives her a unique superpower, giving this game a simplified feel to Mario Odyssey. It is no near the level of Odyssey, but I think the theme of each new area bringing a who new move set gives the same effect.

The game might be on the shorter side, but that only highlights the good game design in the game. Coming in to about 7-8 hours, this game is basically all gameplay. The story is pretty minimal aside from the Theets talking about what’s happening in the play levels. You will go through three floors of battling it out with evil minions and eventually save the Sparklas who have been locked away in the basement. Once you finish taking out the big bad, you unlock the ability to help decorate the theatre, take on new challenges in the play levels, and redo floor bosses with new limitations to get more sparkles. All of these things make it a satisfying length, not too long or too short for what it is.

The only downside is this game is a bit annoying if you want to try and 100% it. Multiple sparkles are hidden throughout the levels and if you miss one, you will have to go back through the entire level. This in addition to long load in times and a lot of dialog that you can’t skip, this makes the 100% run a grind.

I do think that if you are someone who wants to pick up this game, maybe try and get it on a sale. Unless you are someone dying to jump into a Peach game, $60 is a bit much for what this game has to give. I would gladly say this is a good game to get for $40 is you are looking for a game like this.

This feels like the perfect game to sit down with on a weekend and play. I would recommend trying to get it on sale if you can, but I would say this is a 'should play' for someone who enjoys cozy and chill gameplay.