If you haven’t played Princess Peach: Showtime! yet, my only question is: Do you hate having fun?

I’m generally terrible at platformers but I absolutely adore the Super Mario games. In the last two years, I’ve come to love them even more because I play them with my partners, one of whom has played them all their life and the other of whom is in a similar boat to me: we’ve played them, but we’re not particularly good at them. In multiplayer games, we rely on each other to get through; in solo games, we trade between levels so everyone can play. Either way, we have an out: in multiplayer games if things get too hard, you can stop touching your controller and let the camera drag you with the group; in solo games, you can pause and ask someone else to finish the level for you.

We played by these rules in Princess Peach: Showtime! and had the time of our lives. With 40 stages to complete, multiple costumes to collect for Peach and her companion, a magical floating star named Stella, and sparklas (method actors) to rescue, as well as a delightfully wicked villain with henchman (Mme Grape and the Sour Bunch), the only problem with this game is that it’s so short. We could have spent several additional hours exploring the theater, completing themed levels, and rescuing characters. I get that shorter games have their place and that Princess Peach: Showtime! is an exceptional example, I just want more Peach-centric games immediately. Or Daisy-centric. Or Toadette-centric.

Wait.

Where are all the Super Mario games for the girlies?

A Brief History of Women in Mario’s World

These characters have been around nearly as long as the men in the franchise. Mario debuted in Donkey Kong as "Jumpan” in 1981, followed closely by his brother Luigi in—you guessed it—1983’s Mario Bros. as the second-player character. Peach came into the picture as “Princess Toadstool” in the 1985 SNES game Super Mario Bros., followed by Princess Daisy in 1989’s Super Mario Land. Toadette debuted in the 2003 game Mario Kart: Double Dash and Rosalina first appeared in 2007’s Super Mario Galaxy. All of these characters have appeared in other Mario games, including last year’s Super Mario Wonder and even Super Smash Bros.

And yet, Peach is the only woman in the franchise to lead her own game. Multiple, actually: Princess Toadstool’s Castle Run (1990, Nelsonic Game Watch), Super Princess Peach (2005, Nintendo DS), and Princess Peach: Showtime! (2024, Nintendo Switch).

Just three Princess Peach-led games in nearly 40 years? Wildly embarrassing. Hopefully, Nintendo has major plans for her “birthday” in 2025. And given the popularity of Showtime!, perhaps we’ll get a Daisy, Rosalina, or Toadette game soon…? A girl can dream.

Back to the Topic At Hand

Now that we’ve taken a brief foray into Nintendo history, let’s continue talking about Princess Peach: Showtime!

I don’t know if it was the setting or the villain, but Showtime! felt similar to Luigi’s Mansion 3, and I’m not mad about it. It was a lovely callback to another beloved Nintendo game. Showtime! is ultra-colorful, ultra-silly, ultra-exciting, and ultra-delightful. Peach transforms into all kinds of characters and demonstrates skills we rarely see from her in other games, like the ability to assassinate giant guards without making a sound and the ability to sneak around lasers and expertly dismantle combat security robots. Stella gives Peach magic, which enhances her abilities, but Peach does all of the heavy lifting—and it’s amazing to see her take on tasks we’re used to seeing Mario or Luigi tackle in their games.

Peach is a badass in this game. The premise of Showtime! is that she’s at a theater that’s been taken over by Mme Grape and the Sour Bunch, who’ve trapped the star of each play and devastated showgoers who are now trapped in the building with no entertainment. Before Peach can rescue the stars, she must perform in the plays. Each one is a minigame that requires you, the player, to use different skills and accomplish vastly different tasks. One level requires perfect timing and placement to bake delicious and beautiful cookies and cakes. Another requires interrogating every NPC and object in a scene before declaring which one is lying and/or which one doesn’t belong.

You’ll play cowgirl Peach, mermaid Peach, superhero Peach, spy Peach, detective Peach, and more. Each level adds new flair and a different flavor to the game, and saving the starlas requires you to play through each themed minigame at increasing difficulty until you’ve released them from Mme Grape’s evil clutches. We especially enjoyed this because it meant all three of us had multiple chances to play each level, so no one felt left out of the party.

All told, it took us just a few hours to play through Princess Peach: Showtime!, though we didn’t go for a completionist run. (That’s our goal for our next playthrough.) As mentioned above, I wish the game had been longer, but I truly have no other complaints. This game felt thoughtful in its design, its soundscaping, its color story, its bonuses, and its play mechanics. What little speech there is has auto-captions, aside from Peach’s catchphrases when she enters or leaves some rooms, but those aren’t necessary for understanding how to play the game or how the story is moving. The haptics help find hard-to-see spots. If you lose all of your lives during a level, you only lose 10 coins and then return to the nearest autosave point.

This game is damn near perfect and I think you should check it out if you have a Nintendo Switch and a free day. Then let me know what you think in the comments!

Princess Peach: Showtime! is available for Nintendo Switch. You can also download a free demo before purchasing.

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