I've been wary of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the new Princess Peach game ever since it was revealed. It was overshadowed back then by not only 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which was obviously the big draw, but also by the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario RPG remake and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Luigi's Mansion 2 HD. That Peach found herself at the bottom of the pile seemed oddly poetic - Peach is often overlooked. She is typically just the default 'girl' character, and thus often given little personality of note besides enjoying pink and needing to be rescued. In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mario Strikers: Battle League, her superpower is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:making men fall in love with her. And having p🌊layed her previous solo adventure, my excitement was heavily tempered.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Princess Peach: Showtime is not the first Peach game after all - that would be Super Princess Peach on the Nintendo DS. This was a platformer that carried the same beats as Mario, but was designed to be enjoyed by women. And by 'women', I mean those fictional characters who existed only in 1960s cartoons - long-haired brainless creatures of beauty who loved shopping and shoes but couldn't drive or do mathematics. Though the game itself was harmless - its paper-thin story allowed for little else - it was clearly the work of men who thought they knew what women liked and didn't bother ever confirming this with a single conversation.
Peach was powered by her emotions in Super Princess Peach - you know, those silly girlish things that go on in our fluffy little pink brains. Where Mario was a brave adventurer motivated by vengeance and rescuing his fair maiden like the heroes of old, Peach instead had four 'powers' at her disposal - joy, gloom, rage, and calm. With these four emotions, the classic thoughts of a hysterical female mind, Peach made her way through the adventure, swatting enemies with her umbrella.
In fairness, the plot of the game sees Mario and Luigi captured by Bowser, and thus Peach must save them. But this inversion of the classic damsel in distress trope is barely better than playing it straight. It's like Lady Ghostbusters or Lady Ocean's 11. It feels progressive to do a female version of the guys' thing, but we're better off just doing something new. Enter Princess Peach: Showtime.
In Peach's new adventure, she is not rescuing Mario and nor, seemingly, is she designed primarily with the idea of 'what do women do?'. Peach is a swordfighter, detective, and baker in this game, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:with Mario having three million⛎ and on♐e jobs at the last count, it's great to see Peach get distinct, unique roles instead of just 'that thing Mario does, but in pink'.
This also means we finally have a new villain to face off against. I get that Bowser is iconic. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Jack Black steals 🍒the show as him in the movi🅰e, and he's one of the most recognisable baddies in the world. But I'm a bit sick of him by now. He crashes the tennis tournaments, he turns up for the parties, his desire to crush Mario even extends to go-kart racing. Give it a rest big fella. In Wonder, even though it's set in a whole new Kingdom, Bowser is there again, and even becomes a living castle. Enough is enough. Showtime seems to be about giving Peach her own sense of identity, and that means giving her her own foe too.
Peach is fighting against the Wicked Grape and the Sour Bunch, which is undeniably very silly. But there seems to be a bit more humour and playful presentation to Showtime than a typical Mario game - 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Paper Mario might be its closest relation in the Nintendo family. Having a villain that fits that tone rather than putting Bowser in a campy hat will be a key part of making this game stand on its own rather than just being Lady Mario. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The fact it's not a traditional platformer but includes more puzzles and level exploration alongside combat should also help give this game an identity beyond 'a Mario game, but with Peach'.
Bowser is still great. Though I wouldn't object to Wonder having someone new to take on, I get that Mario versus Bowser is a timeless battle and that the King Koopa is a core part of the equation. A little change is good now and then, but Mario's main enemy will always be Bowser and that's a formula that mostly works. But for the Peach game to be its own thing, it needed a fresh approach. Whatever becomes of the Wicked Grape, I'm glad Showtime has someone new to fight. It alone extinguishes most of the fears over Peach's spin-off, and I can't wait to stomp some grapes next year when Princess Peach: Showtime launches on March 22.