Princess Peach: Showtime! Review: A Kirby Game With a Different Name

Fun transformations, a unique presentation, a pink-colored protagonist, and a short run time with a fairly easy difficulty; these have become the hallmarks of the Kirby franchise over the last few decades. However, these are also things players should expect from Princess Peach: Showtime! on Nintendo Switch. While Peach's starring role doesn't hit the same heights as some of Kirby's best games, it does offer a lot for players to enjoy. 

When Princess Peach: Showtime! begins, the princess and her loyal Toads have gone to see a play at the Sparkle Theater. However, things are quickly thrown into chaos by the arrival of Grape and her minions, the Sour Bunch. Planning to put on a tragedy of her own making, she kidnaps the 10 Sparklas, which are the lead actors for all of the Sparkle Theater's plays. To save the theater, Peach must banish Grape's minions from each floor of the building by using the Sparkle transformation belonging to each lead actor. 

A Princess Transformed

Across each floor of the theater, players will find different plays they can enter, following 10 different themes and transformations. Players can check out each level on the floor in the order of their choosing, and Peach's transformation changes based on the theme. Each transformation appears across multiple levels, but in the first area for each theme, Peach must first find and unlock the corresponding Sparkle. Once transformed, Peach will be given different powers and abilities. For example, in Ninja Peach stages, players have to use stealth to take down foes, while Patisserie Peach's stages focus on baking cookies and decorating cakes. 

Those Patisserie Peach stages ended up being some of my favorites in the game. Instead of focusing on combat and exploration, players focus on baking cookies and decorating cakes, and the pace is much faster than you'd expect. In a game that's otherwise pretty easy, Patisserie Peach's stages offer a bit more challenge, forcing players to race against the clock. The gameplay feels like it would be right at home in a Mario Party minigame, but it also fits really well here. 

The variety in Princess Peach: Showtime! is one of the game's greatest strengths. The levels are never grouped together by type, so players won't have to beat two Kung Fu Peach Stages in a row, or two Cowgirl Peach stages back to back. The game is constantly throwing something different at players, and that works out pretty well, because the transformations are mostly enjoyable. That said, there are a few clunkers, with Detective Peach and Mermaid Peach being the weakest links in the bunch. Detective Peach's stages add to the overall variety, as the heroine has no offensive abilities in this form, but the gameplay ends up feeling boring. Some players have called the mysteries too easy in Detective Pikachu Returns, but there's no deduction at all in the Detective Peach stages; players are basically left pressing the "A" button. The Mermaid Peach stages are equally slow, and sometimes the goals just aren't made clear enough. 

Once all stages are cleared on a floor, players will head into a boss battle. During these stages, players will have to use Peach without any of her transformations, and there's a bit more challenge than players would expect compared to the rest of the game. A recurring theme in Princess Peach: Showtime! is that many of the designs players come across are inspired by the theater setting. Grape's bosses are no exception, with apt names like Purrjector Cat and Light Fang. Unfortunately, the whole experience can be wrapped up pretty quickly. Players who want to unlock every Sparkle Gem in the game can extend the experience a little bit, but not by much. A hard mode would have been a welcome option, but there's just one default difficulty. 

Putting on a Show

Since this is all set in a theater, many elements of the stages are designed to resemble props built on a modest budget. It's common to see parts of the background held up by string or ropes, and Cowgirl Peach's horse is clearly built out of wood. These elements really add to the charm, and this is the kind of game that seems destined to inspire a stage in the next Super Smash Bros. entry. 

Unfortunately, the same positives can't be said for the game's graphics. While a lot has been said about the graphic capabilities of Nintendo Switch, the reality is that most first-party games still look great seven years into the console's lifespan. Last year alone gave us Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Pikmin 4, all of which pushed the system's abilities to its limits. I didn't go into Princess Peach: Showtime! expecting anything graphically impressive (and I already had reservations from our hands-on preview), yet that aspect of the game still managed to disappoint me. It really lacks the level of graphic polish I've come to expect from Nintendo in the Switch era, with textures that feel like they'd be more at home on 3DS. This is all the more glaring during the game's load screens, where it feels like the system is struggling to keep up. 

Another glaring issue with the presentation is Peach's voice. Samantha Kelly reprises her role, and while she's given more lines than usual, they sometimes sound strange, and a big part is the way the character's mouth remains static when she's speaking. The result just looks cheap. 

A Game of Her Own

While the Kirby influence is undeniable, I greatly appreciate that Princess Peach: Showtime! has given the character a unique game that doesn't talk down to the audience. This is the first time Peach has gotten to headline a game since 2005, and one of the most common complaints about Super Princess Peach is that it adhered to feminine stereotypes instead of giving men and women a game both can enjoy. I don't know if Peach's second starring role will result in a full spin-off series, but I appreciate the effort put into giving the character her own cast and abilities outside the Mushroom Kingdom; appropriately enough, Princess Peach: Showtime! even ditches the Toads at the very start of the game, as if to indicate that this is truly a new beginning for the character, with a cast of her own, and maybe even her own recurring nemesis. 

It's too soon to tell if Princess Peach: Showtime! will do for the character what Luigi's Mansion did for Mario's brother, but I find myself hoping we'll see Nintendo revisit this concept in the future. Hopefully by then they'll have ditched some of the weaker transformations, and give the graphics an overhaul worthy of royalty. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Princess Peach: Showtime! is set to release March 22nd, exclusively on Nintendo Switch. A code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review, and it was reviewed on a Nintendo Switch OLED.