Princess Peach: Showtime! is everything I wanted in a game as a little girl

If there was one thing I could count on growing up in the ’90s, it was the weekly family trip to Blockbuster. While my mom or dad was browsing through the new movies, I grabbed my little sister’s hand and went straight to the video game section. Most of the time I knew what I was renting: The great circus mystery starring Mickey and Minnie, a Super Nintendo Entertainment System game released by Capcom in 1994. I loved the fact that I could play as Minnie – and that Minnie could transform into different characters, like a makeshift Ghostbuster with a vacuum that sucks in enemies, a jungle explorer that gave her acrobatic moves, or a cowgirl with a banger and a hobbyhorse. The game was an important part of my childhood playtime, until suddenly it was no more.

A few years ago I started thinking about the game again. It took a recipe of keywords – ‘Minnie’, ‘transformations’, ‘circus’ – to find it, but we did it. I found a copy of the Game Boy Advance remake (renamed Disney’s Magical Quest 2 starring Mickey and Minnie) at a local used game store and clicked it into my old handheld. But somewhere along the way, the magic I had felt playing the game was lost. It’s a solid but easy platformer with a charming sense of place, but it couldn’t evoke the joy I felt playing it as a kid – something I think a lot of people can relate to when looking back on favorites from their childhood. That’s the thing about nostalgia, right? It is an altered memory of the past, remembering feelings over reality.

I’ve chased awe here and there and caught glimpses of what it felt like to play a magical game. But I didn’t find it until 2024, 30 years later, at Nintendo Princess Peach: Showtime!. It is Nintendo’s first game starring Peach in almost twenty years after the Nintendo DS game Super princess peach, and it’s already far too late. The game brings Peach to the Sparkle Theater, where chaos ensues as villain Madame Grape and her henchmen in the Sour Bunch take over a series of plays to create the ultimate tragedy – in both definitions of the word.

Instead of watching these plays, Peach becomes part of them. Of Sailor MoonWith magical girl transformations, Peach becomes the star of every play. Sometimes that means grabbing a sword to cut your way through hordes of enemies, or grabbing a piping bag to decorate cakes in short mini-games. Each floor of the theater has four different plays that Peach can participate in and of course save. There are 10 costumes in total, but you can play different levels for each: Swordfighter, Detective, Patissiere, Kung Fu, Ninja, Cowgirl, Mighty (almost Metroid-inspired!), Figure Skater, Dashing Thief and Mermaid.

Image: Nintendo

As for the difficulty level, Princess Peach: Showtime! is clearly a game for children. It’s built to be accessible to younger players, with just two core buttons: one to perform an action (such as attack) and one to jump, in addition to using the analog stick for movement. But what Princess Peach: Showtime! lacks challenge, it compensates for the diversity of the game. Although there are only two button actions, the different costumes make each stage feel very different. That’s because they usually are: each stage is built around the partner’s costume and skill. For Swordfighter Peach, it’s blasting your way through enemies in something more like a platformer. Detective Peach trades the sword for a magnifying glass; instead of fighting, you search the environment for simple clues to solve small puzzles. Ninja Peach turns around Princess Peach: Showtime! in a stealth game, while Mermaid Peach puts a twist on simple timing games.

This creates a game that is constantly changing; there is rarely a time when a phase lasts too long. Detective Peach is the only costume that fell flat for me; searching for clues stopped the momentum building in the rest of the game, but there are only three of these transformations out of a total of 30. In addition to the stages and gameplay, the small details of the game also keep it alive; there is always something new happening or an endearing moment to enjoy. One of my favorites is with Peach and her ninja outfit; Silently, Peach takes out a roll of wallpaper to blend in with the walls, or a few cardboard leaves to blend in with the grass.

Image: Nintendo

Princess Peach: Showtime! is not only a game that makes me feel like a kid, but also a game I wish I had had as a little girl. I was originally drawn to it The great circus mystery starring Mickey and Minnie because I wanted to play as Minnie. I wanted to play as a girl – and not just any girl, but a female character who was equal to the male character. Thirty years ago, these types of options simply didn’t exist. It’s hard to believe that Nintendo would take this long to make another Peach game – and one that’s entirely unique to the Super Mario Bros. franchise – because it’s a no-brainer at this point. I have no doubt that many little children will enjoy this Princess Peach: Showtime! offers.

Princess Peach: Showtime! will be released on Nintendo Switch on March 22. The game was reviewed using a pre-release download code from Nintendo. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. You can find Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.