Princess Peach has made her long-awaited comeback in Princess Peach: Showtime, her second mainline game since Super Princess Peach arrived on the Nintendo DS, way back in 2005. Almost two decades later, Mario’s number one princess has returned to show us what she’s really all about – no longer being at the whim of her emotions, but instead taking to the center of the stage as she reclaims the Sparkle Theater from the Sour Bunch.
That’s right. Princess Peach previously starred in a platforming game of her own where the main mechanic was channeling her emotions – rage, joy, gloom, and calm – to harness different abilities throughout the game. A 10-year-old me thought that it was great. It was vibrant, jovial, full of style – as a Peach game should be – but it hasn’t really aged well.
It’s safe to say this derivative mechanic has been addressed – and flipped on its head entirely – in Princess Peach: Showtime. The world’s a stage in Showtime, quite literally, as Peach takes on multiple starring roles in each of the stage-plays being hosted at Sparkle Theater, which is being overtaken by the notorious Sour Bunch.
