She wields the sword, captures her adversaries with a lasso, becomes a pastry chef or leads the investigation to unmask thieves. In “Showtime!” », available on the Nintendo Switch console, Princess Peach, also known at one time as Toadstool, can transform in ten different ways to carry out the missions entrusted to her.
The one who Mario has been helping for around forty years in dozens of games is this time taking matters in hand. Its goal is to free a gigantic theater from an evil force that prevents plays from being held in the numerous rooms making up it.
Each of these rooms corresponds to a level which is completed in approximately ten or fifteen minutes. The mechanics correspond to a sort of succession of mini-games with simple and new tasks to carry out each time. In each room, Peach takes on the clothes of a new character with their own characteristics. In addition to those already mentioned, she must be discreet like a ninja to escape the surveillance of opponents or perform figure skating figures. In total, she can transform in ten ways.
These ten costumes allow you to explore various registers of video games and combine them: action, sport, platform… In all, around thirty levels are to be completed. THE boss are of varying difficulty, sometimes with good gameplay finds, the way to play to overcome them. But it is never insurmountable to overcome it. Finally, some now traditional customization elements have been added with a store to buy (virtually and free) objects in exchange for currency acquired during the game.
“Princess Peach: showtime!” » really plays the accessibility card. There are only two buttons to use, usually one to jump and another to perform an action. This simplicity does not detract from the variety of missions and is to be welcomed at a time when players are regularly overwhelmed by too many functions. The tasks to be done are sometimes partly assisted and a margin of error is often tolerated. Some levels, however, are more tricky and some boss require patience or a bit of ingenuity to overcome them.
Nintendo has been making its character take a turn since 2023
With around thirty levels to complete, the lifespan is a few hours for experienced players, more for occasional players or children who are discovering the world of video games. But both the most seasoned and the less experienced will find what they are looking for in this varied game. In addition, seeing Peach continue to emancipate herself from the passive role to which she has too often been confined is a real pleasure. On the portable Nintendo DS in 2005, she already had a game built around her character, but it somewhat clumsily maintained certain sexist stereotypes. In different Nintendo franchises like Mario Kart or Smash Bros., she plays an active role as a character equal to the others, but among the others.
“Showtime!” » is therefore the first game since 1985 and the appearance of Peach in the world of Nintendo where she plays a rewarding main role. This trend is part of a shift taken with the film Mario released in 2023 where she plays a key character in the action and acts as the leader of the gang.
However, a nuance to this assessment must be made. At a time of the proliferation of free or inexpensive games on smartphones and platforms, spending between 45 and 60 euros depending on the brand for a game completed in a few hours is a bit high, even if it is successful. A little extra effort on this point would have been appreciated.