Princess Peach: Showtime review: "A charming little morsel of a game"

GamesRadar+ VerdictPrincess Peach: Showtime fills its short runtime with a tremendous variety of levels and transformations, elevating each with charming details and a surprising amount of spectacle. Its only real limitation is its own lack of ambition, leaving this a memorable adventure, but not one for the ages.Pros+Fantastic variety and spectacle between levels+Tightly packed with charming details+No fillerCons-Little depth-Frustrating limitations to stage replays GamesRadar+ Verdict GamesRadar+ Verdict Princess Peach: Showtime fills its short runtime with a tremendous variety of levels and transformations, elevating each with charming details and a surprising amount of spectacle. Its only real limitation is its own lack of ambition, leaving this a memorable adventure, but not one for the ages. Princess Peach: Showtime fills its short runtime with a tremendous variety of levels and transformations, elevating each with charming details and a surprising amount of spectacle. Its only real limitation is its own lack of ambition, leaving this a memorable adventure, but not one for the ages. Pros+Fantastic variety and spectacle between levels+Tightly packed with charming details+No filler Fantastic variety and spectacle between levels Tightly packed with charming details No filler Cons-Little depth-Frustrating limitations to stage replays Little depth Frustrating limitations to stage replays Why you can trust GamesRadar+Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about our reviews policy. Why you can trust GamesRadar+Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about our reviews policy. If you count all her appearances in karting events, sports games, and ensemble rosters, Princess Peach has probably been a playable character more often than she’s been a damsel in distress. But it doesn’t really feel like it, does it? Outside of one very infamous attempt in Super Princess Peach, the first lady of Nintendo has never gotten to be the leading lady, even as Mario has gotten to be everything from doctor to ape-kidnapping supervillain. Fast FactsRelease date:March 22, 2024Platform:Nintendo SwitchDeveloper:In-housePublisher:Nintendo Fast Facts Release date:March 22, 2024Platform:Nintendo SwitchDeveloper:In-housePublisher:Nintendo Release date:March 22, 2024Platform:Nintendo SwitchDeveloper:In-housePublisher:Nintendo With Princess Peach: Showtime, it feels like Nintendo is making up for lost time. With a spirit that feels straight out of the marketing campaign for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie, Peach is now everything – a sword fighter, a pastry chef, a detective, and a whole lot more. Showtime has a light touch of everything, too, with platforming, brawling, and unlikely as it might sound, Uncharted-style action set pieces with spectacle to spare. The result is a tremendously varied, charming little morsel of a game that can offer a surprising amount of challenge for those willing to seek it out. If there’s anything holding Princess Peach: Showtime back, it’s that it never really tries to be much more than video game candy – it’s satisfyingly sweet while it lasts, but there’s not much depth to the flavor. All the world’s a stage (Image credit: Nintendo) Most stages are 3D areas with a little bit of depth, but which mostly scroll from left to right – a bit like a classic brawler in the Streets of Rage or Double Dragon style. Whichever transformation Peach has taken on, she can usually jump with one button and take some kind of attack or other action with a second. It’s a simple framework, but within those limitations each transformation manages to feel distinct without the whole experience turning into a gimmicky minigame collection. An impressive production (Image credit: Nintendo) Princess Peach: Showtime’s real strength is its variety and spectacle. Sneaking through tall grass in the (very light, very forgiving) stealth sections of Ninja Peach feels very different from beating up waves of bad guys as Kung Fu Peach. In one stage, you might be solving a mystery in the vein of a classic point-and-click adventure game, while in another you might be hurriedly baking enough cookies to hold an army of sweets-hungry zombies at bay. Joyous little details and bits of animation help sell the charm, too, from the way Peach will grab her skirt to avoid trampling over it to the way she’ll do a little jig around other dancing characters. Each transformation feels subtly different thanks to details like this, too. Sprinting along city walls in ninja form feels speedy and purposeful, while slicing the ice in figure skater form feels smooth and graceful. The whole stagecraft aesthetic is beautifully executed too, with fun little additions like flames made out of painted wood, or the horses that gallop across the screen as marionettes. Maybe my favorite part is a Western stage where a giant train whips through a town, wrecking shops and saloons while you ride on horseback across rooftops as they’re being destroyed. Occasionally, Princess Peach: Showtime dips into bits of spectacle that would feel more at home in a big first-party PlayStation game than a Nintendo title, but they’re highlights every time they show up – and provide the closest thing to challenge you’ll find in any of the main stages. Not much of an encore (Image credit: Nintendo) But hey, in a world where video games are demanding more and more of my time and energy, there’s something to be said for an experience that cuts the filler to deliver polished charm in spades. Princess Peach: Showtime may not be an all-encompassing production, but the entire troupe has given its all to make sure the crowd goes home happy. 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