Thank you Nintendo for sending us this game to review!

Princess Peach hasn’t had a game dedicated to her since 2005’s Super Princes Peach. I enjoyed playing that game on the DS and was excited to play Princess Peach: Showtime! on the Switch. The game begins with Princess Peach and Toad attempting to relax and watch a show at the Sparkle Theater. While Toad is buying tickets, you can talk to the little yellow people with big light-up noses called “Theets”. Before Princess Peach and Toad head to their seats, the theater is taken over by Madame Grape and her Sour Bunch minions. The star performers are kidnapped and it’s up to Princess Peach to reprise their roles and rescue them. A floating star-like character names Stella will guide Princess Peach along the way.

Here are the roles that Princess Peach will transform into to save theater:

Cowgirl Peach – Princess Peach will ride on horseback, scale trains, and use her lasso to subdue enemies
Dashing Thief Peach – The James Bond themes are heavy with the background music and infiltrating enemy bases
Detective Peach – Can Princess Peach find all the clues to crack the case? Wrong guesses will subtract a heart!
Figure Skater Peach- Princess Peach is very graceful on ice. She can twirl, jump, and spin around enemies to dazzle and defeat them
Kung Fu Peach – Princess Peach must master attacking and blocking techniques to defeat the grand master
Mermaid Peach – Princess Peach uses her opera-like voice to control schools of fish to do her bidding
Mighty Peach – In this form Princess Peach can fly through space and shoot electricity out of her arms. She’s crazy strong and can hurl vehicles without breaking a sweat
Ninja Peach – Fast movements and disguising her appearance are essential when it comes to sneaking into the enemy’s base
Patisserie Peach – The Sour Bunch minions have a sweet tooth; can Princess Peach satiate their appetite with her cookie making and cake decorating skills?
Swordfighter Peach – With her fencing moves, Peach must master timed attacks and parries

There are five theater levels to work through with several rooms in each one. You can clear the rooms in any order and after they are all handled, a door will appear which leads to a boss battle. The bosses typically drop an item that Peach has to transform or repurpose to use against them. After three good hits, they’ll be defeated and the floor will be cleared, opening up the next one to explore. After multiple floors are completed, a lift will become available which makes traveling between multiple floors much faster.

The boss battles are a mixed bag. Some of the m are easier to figure out than others. There's a cat boss where you have to bring a bomb to the middle of the floor before he(?) smashes his paws down to the ground, propelling the bomb into his face. I kept trying to place the bombs near his paws and lost serval hearts in the process. I also struggled with the cowgirl level boss that needed to have barrels thrown between gunfire shots. I eventually got through it after struggling with the controls for a bit. Stella sometimes will drop hints on what you need to do.

Each theater room has a theme to it which pertains to the character Princess Peach must play as. For example, if she’s Detective Peach she’ll have to solve a mystery by looking for clues and avoiding the false flags. The story for most of the rooms is to step in for the main actor so the show can still go on. Before you enter a room, you’ll see a preview of how many sparkle gems there are available to collect. They are typically between seven and ten per room. Completionists will have opportunities to try again if desired, as they are easy to miss at times. Some levels are more backtrack friendly than others. Each level also has a Theet in peril and if you find and rescue him you’ll unlock a ribbon at the store as a token of thanks.

Coins are available in the level and they serve two purposes. If you lose all of your hearts, you can try again for ten coins. One of the Theets will give you a charm adding three more hearts to Princess Peach’s life bar if needed. If Princess Peach dies in a boss battle and is out of coins, the game will let you auto complete the level to avoid rage quitting.

Aside from the theater floors is a basement. In here, you’ll see a room for each of the stars that Peach must rescue. After reprising their role twice, Peach will unlock the ability to unlock their room in the basement. Once all the star actors are rescued, the final boss, Madame Grape will be available to battle. Like many last bosses, she has multiple (two) stages.

After the final battle, several mini-games will unlock such as a boss rush mode, and a sword battle fight that will end once you take damage. There’s also a hide and seek mini-game where you’ll have to locate all of the ninjas in training. Since the main story is less than ten hours long, I’m glad there is more to do after it’s over.

There’s little to complain about from a moral perspective. Cartoon violence is present, but there’s no blood. While Princess Peach is a mermaid, you’ll see her stomach. The rest of her outfits have more skin covered.

The visuals are colorful and cute. Princess Peach: Showtime! runs well on the Switch and I wouldn’t expect less from a game published by Nintendo. The voice acting is a bit disappointing as it’s mostly gibberish. Prince Peach has a handful of phrases, but you’ll mostly hear gasps from her.

All in all, Princess Peach: Showtime! is a cute game but is a tad overpriced for less than ten hours of gameplay in my opinion. It’s a fun game and there’s a lot of variety and charm. If you’re on the fence, there’s a demo available. It’s certainly worth picking up on sale.