The Princess Peach Show is clearly geared towards younger Nintendo gamers, but it’s still enjoyable – hands-on

It’s crazy to think that in the four decades of the Mario series, Peach has only been a central playable character on a handful of occasions. In most cases, even when playable, she is part of an ensemble, such as in party games, Mario 2 America, or Mario RPG. But in Princess Peach’s performance, she really takes center stage.

In fact, Peach’s adventures are reminiscent of Yoshi’s Story on the N64. The game has a storybook aesthetic, with the game’s narrative framed as a bedtime story told to a restless Yoshi. Showtime’s core philosophy is that everything that happens takes place in a theater—as part of a series of plays, in keeping with the age-old Miyamoto philosophy.

Each “level” the game offers is a different performance, allowing Peach to dress up in a variety of costumes and display a variety of different abilities. This is basically a role-playing game in the traditional non-game sense.

The dramatic nature of the narrative creates a comfortable, friendly atmosphere to the story. Stage details are often made from apparently flat cardboard – as it’s not meant to be real. Everything is done with a slight twist that adds to the fun and reduces the danger.

The story is as simple as you might imagine: Peach goes to the theater to see a show, but the event is interrupted by an evil Lehman-type armless witch named Grape. Her “sour bunch” of minions do all look a bit like grapes. They took over the theater and ruthlessly bullied its owners, the Tate family. These are all new characters and, in practice, the story focuses on fresh additions to the Mario canon. Luggage, even Toady’s, is left at the theater door.

The theater functions a bit like the heroine’s castle in Mario 64 – a series of halls with doorways leading to the stage or world. Each stage has ten things to collect, in a Mario Odyssey-esque “do what you can” kind of way. Complete each stage of a given floor in any order you like, and you’ll complete the stages via a boss-like encounter (which isn’t always combat focused). Once you complete each stage on a level, you can proceed to the next part of the theater, where more stages await you. You can also go back to completed stages to get what you missed.

Showtime in each level offers its real selling point – each level has a completely different game mode. Peach didn’t just change the outfit – she changed everything.

Peach is herself when you first enter each stage. She has some sparkling magic that can defeat basic enemies and restore a frustrated Tate – but really each level requires you to find the right outfit for that stage. At this point, Peach cutely changes costume – but also gains new abilities unique to this stage.

As far as I can tell, Nintendo internally refers to such things as “Charm Points”—elements in a game that stand out, are enjoyable, and are attractive. If we were less charitable, we could call it a gimmick. But gimmicks can also be great. This is one such case.

In this demo, I tried four different game modes. As a Blade Fighter, the game offers a tantalizing theme: How about Baby’s First Bayonetta? You can just swing your sword, but encounters, especially bosses, are built around dodging and counterattacking, providing a wide window for players unaccustomed to Twitch games. I think younger players can discover a whole new genre this way. Baker Peach, meanwhile, has a stage that’s essentially devoid of combat and instead consists of cake-decorating mini-games that feel a bit like it fell out of Mario Party.

Ninja Momoko isn’t built around full-on Hayabusa action, but a simple stealth mechanic. Peach can blend into the papery grass in the level to hide herself. When the enemy’s back is turned, you can rush in and perform a backstab. Cowgirl Peach doesn’t have a gun – this isn’t Fortnite – but instead lassoes enemies, is able to scoop them up, and then throw enemies or objects at objects with a rope.

In addition to its core mechanics, the game isn’t afraid to have a bit of a cinematic feel. Cowgirl Peach’s stage climaxes with a lasso mechanism into a horseback chase sequence on a track, while Sword Fighter features a proper boss fight.

It’s all fluffy but packed with charm.Costumes, animation – Ninja Momoko holds up a bit of hand-drawn shrubbery on a piece of paper to cover her head as she sneaks through the tall grass – it’s just charming.To be fair, this is obviously not appropriate for a man in his thirties either – but I look at this and I see absolutely the same thing Can This was my daughter’s first video game. She’s still a bit young – but seeing Nintendo making games like this makes me excited for the future – and envious of those who are already able to share games with their kids. It’s true that the framerate is rough and load times are long in this version – but I also have to ask myself – does the target audience for a game like this really care that much about these things?

As always with a game like this, a lot depends on the breadth of content. I saw four stages and costumes – some of which were in the final game. But if everything else in the game is on par with what I’ve seen, and if Nintendo can smooth out the performance a bit, I can see this being a huge success and a great game for younger kids. In fact, its packaging is ultimately the icing on the cake for Peach.

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“Princess Peach Showtime” will be released on Nintendo Switch on March 22.