Review: Princess Peach: Showtime Proves Peach Doesn’t Always Need Mario

Princess Peach: Showtime is a fun, action-packed Super Mario spin-off that makes you realize you don’t always need Mario to save the day or have a good time. With beautiful level design and a whole bunch of transformations and combat mechanics, the 2024 Nintendo Switch title will likely be loved by Super Mario World fans looking for something to fill the void while they wait for a new installment. It’s my favorite Super Mario spin-off to date. While some may be skeptical of a Princess Peach-led game, especially with it being 19 years since Super Princess Peach on the Nintendo DS, you definitely shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. The Mushroom Kingdom princess stands on her own here.

In Princess Peach: Showtime, your aim is to save Sparkle Theatre from an evil masked villain known as Grape and her annoying crew, the Sour Bunch. They’ve kidnapped the Theets, a troupe of actors who reside in the theatre, and it’s up to Peach and Stella — the Sparkle Theatre’s ribbon guardian — to rescue them and restore order by jumping into various plays and acting them out. Each play has its own storyline and theme, which made me want to clear them to find out what happens. As you do, you’ll unlock a variety of costumes for Peach, who uses Stella to attack, each with its own power and play style, such as Ninja Peach, where you take out enemies with a kunai and scale walls with lightning speed and Dashing Thief Peach, which gives her a grappling hook with a cool costume to boot.

Not every costume has combat mechanics, though. One play dresses the princess as Patissiere Peach, who must bake and decorate cookies against the clock, Cooking Mama style. This was my favorite, even though the levels can get tough due to the speed at which you must help out the Theets with their desserts. But that only made it more fun! You get to use each costume multiple times in different stages, too, so it’s not just a one-and-done deal.

Some plays have boss fights, which have various mechanics, largely involving dodging at the right time by pressing A. This was very common and appeared in many battles, which made them too easy after a while because it was just a case of figuring out when to dodge and jump on their head three times to kill them off. I would have liked to see more mechanics here, as I began to get bored whenever I found myself in a challenge against a boss. Though, luckily, they didn’t happen too often, especially after the opening hour.

As you play through Sparkle Theatre’s various plays, you collect Sparkla Gems, reminiscent of Super Mario 3D World’s Green Stars. Some are easy to miss, concealed behind a dull spotlight or off the beaten path. At times, I was convinced I’d collected all of them in a play, only to reach the end and realize I’d missed a couple, even though I was certain I’d combed through every nook and cranny. You don’t need to collect every Sparkle Gem to progress, but if you’re someone who strives to reach 100% completion on every stage, you’ll love the challenge like I did. There’s also a hidden NPC in each stage named the Ribboner, who, when found, will unlock a new Ribbon style for Peach or Stella, so it’s worth going out of your way to hunt him down.

There are many Peach and Stella Ribbons to unlock in Princess Peach: Showtime, whether it’s through the aforementioned Ribboner, defeating Action Rehearsals after clearing a floor, or buying them in the Sparkle Theatre first-floor lobby using the coins you collect throughout the plays. I swapped Peach’s outfit often because she has many cute ones, and I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to wear. Every time I liked one, I unlocked something better! This made me go out of my way to collect as many as possible, adding to the replayability of each stage. There are also other things to unlock in the lobby, especially if you collect every Sparkla Gem in a stage, but I’ll leave that surprise for you to uncover.

Princess Peach: Showtime is a fantastic action-adventure title with many transformations that make the game fun and replayable. While some may find the boss battles tedious and repetitive, it is offset by enjoyable combat and a plethora of collectibles, making it fun for those who love the grind. Overall, Princess Peach: Showtime manages to hold its own as a Super Mario spin-off and proves that Mario doesn’t need to be in every game in its universe in order for it to be great.

Princess Peach: Showtime will be available on March 22, 2024, on the Nintendo Switch.