Princess Peach may be one of the more prominent characters in the Mario universe, but unlike the likes of Luigi, Yoshi, and others, she hasn’t been able to grab as much of the spotlight in an individual capacity as many fans would want. The last time she was the star of a solo game was with the Nintendo DS’ Super Princess Peach, which was nearly two decades ago, but though the wait for another Peach game has been long, it’s finally ending soon. Princess Peach: Showtime is not far away from launch now, and ahead of its imminent release, here, we’ll be going over all the key details you should know about it.
STORY DETAILS
Princess Peach: Showtime! will begin, as games in the Mario universe often do, in the simplest of ways, with Peach travelling to Sparkle Theater with a group of Toads to attend its newest performance. Things go wrong, however, when the masked villain known as Grape and her minions attack the theater and take it over, after which it falls to Peach to defeat them and put an end to their nefarious plans.
CORE PREMISE
Sparkle Theater will serve as the game’s setting, but it will take many different forms throughout your playthrough. On her journey to defeat Grape, Peach will be moving across several different stages, each with their own unique themes, aesthetics, and gameplay mechanics. From a wild west town to a pleasant grassland to all manner of interior locations, the stages that Peaches will find herself in throughout the game are looking like they will offer quite a bit of variety.
CHARACTERS
With the Mario brothers and her usual cohorts not really part of the picture in Princess Peach: Showtime!, the princess is going to be accompanied by a different cast of characters. Check among them will be the star-shaped Stella, the guardian of the Sparkle Theater who will accompany Peach on her journey, and will grant her the power of her ribbon (more on that in a bit). Then there’s Grape, the antagonist, a masked figure who wishes to turn every play in the theater into a terrifying tragedy. She’ll be looking to do that with the aid of the Sour Bunch, her acting troupe and minions, while stuck in the crossfire and looking to help Peach out however they can will be the Theets, the theater’s actors and residents.
TRANSFORMATIONS
Transformations will serve as the primary gameplay mechanic in Princess Peach: Showtime! Throughout the game, not only will Peach be going through differently themed stages, in each stage, she will also take on a unique form by transformation to fit the theme of her surroundings. Each form will bring with it a new look for Peach, as well as new abilities and mechanics, which in turn will inform how you will interact with things around you, how you’ll traverse the environment with different platforming actions, how you’ll engage in combat with enemies, and more. Nintendo has confirmed 10 transformations for the game- let’s take a look at all of them.
MIGHTY, FIGURE SKATER, DASHING THIEF TRANSFORMATIONS
Starting off, there’s the Mighty Peach transformation, which will see the princess taking on the form of a superhero, complete with a costume. She’ll have the ability to beat the crap out of her enemies with superpowered punches, and she’ll be able to fly. Then there’s Figure Skater Peach, which will see her moving about icy environments with graceful jumps and nimble movements while defeating her foes with spins. The Dashing Thief Peach transformation, meanwhile, will be a much more stealth-oriented one, and will involve using a grapple hook, gliding, sneaking past enemies, and the like.
MERMAID, COWGIRL, SWORDFIGHTER TRANSFORMATIONS
Moving into much more fantastical territory, there’s the Mermaid Peach transformation, where the princess will be able to control schools of fish by singing to them to then reveal hidden pathways to travel through. Cowgirl Peach, on the other hand, will take on a much more action-heavy approach by riding around on the back of her trusty horse and using her lasso to defeat enemies in combat. The Swordfighter Peach transformation, meanwhile, will do exactly what its name suggests, equipping the princess with a sword and allowing her to deal with enemies using graceful slashes, dodges, and counterattacks.
PATISSIERE, KUNG FU, DETECTIVE, AND NINJA TRANSFORMATIONS
Patissiere Peach is looking like it’ll be one of the more interesting transformations in the game, giving Peach the ability to bake and decorate all manner of sweets, but also imposing time limits as you do so. Then there’s the Kung Fu Peach transformation, which will let players let their acrobatic kicks and punches do the talking when facing the Sour Bunch. The Detective Peach transformation, meanwhile, will task you with solving a mystery by uncovering clues and putting the pieces together. And finally, Ninja Peach, as you might imagine, will blend acrobatic platforming, nimble combat, and sneaky tactics.
PEACH’S RIBBON
Transformation will obviously serve as the central gameplay mechanic in Princess Peach: Showtime! but beyond that, Peach ribbon will also be something you will be getting a lot of use out of. Empowered by Stella, the ribbon will allow Peach to interact with different things in a variety of different ways. On top of serving as her weapon when she’s in her regular form, using her ribbon, the princess will also be able to rally the Theets and enlist their aid, interact with props and the stage, and activate platforms that will allow her to transform.
BUILT ON UNREAL ENGINE
Very rarely do you see a first-party, in-house Nintendo game being developed using an external engine, but Princess Peach: Showtime! is one of those rare examples. The game has been built on Unreal Engine 4, which, interestingly enough, makes it the third Nintendo game in the last few years to have used Epic’s toolkit for development, after Yoshi’s Crafted World in 2019 and Pikmin 4 last year.
SPECIAL EDITION JOY-CONS
Nintendo has a habit of releasing special edition hardware and accessories alongside its first-party games, and it’ll be doing a little bit of that with Princess Peach: Showtime! as well. When the game launches on March 22, it’ll do so alongside a new Pastel Pink Joy-con set for the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo has confirmed that the new Joy-con colour is only going to be available for a limited time, but hasn’t yet revealed any specifics on just how limited it will be.
FILE SIZE
Owing to their very nature, games on the Nintendo Switch tend to have pretty miniscule file sizes, especially by modern standards, and that’s double true for first-party games releasing for the system. Unsurprisingly, Princess Peach: Showtime! isn’t going to break tradition on that front. According to the game’s eShop page, it will require just 4.7 GB of free storage space on your console. Even by Nintendo Switch standards, that’s pretty low.
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