N-Philes

Super Princess Peach

Posted May 20th 2006 by D. Cassandra Garcia.

Princess Peach... in her own video game?? Yes, it's happened! And it's gathered a lot of attention, mostly sounding something like, "It looks great, I think I'll buy it... for my little sister." For some reason, the debut of Super Princess Peach has been seen more as a ploy to cash in on the female demographic than an honest attempt to make a quality platformer, but why? Is it any more girly to play a game starring Princess Toadstool Peach than something like Yoshi's Story? Or is it not the fact that it stars Peach but some other aspect to the gameplay that makes it a powerhouse to the dollhouse crowd? What if we sat down Desiré and Jared, a female gamer and a Yoshi's Story fan (respectively), and saw what they thought of the game? Yes, let's do exactly that.

Jared: There's a lot riding on this game; its ambitious goal not only involves trying to bring more female gamers to the DS, but as the first original platformer in the Super Mario vein since damn near the SNES days, this title is paving the way for the triumphant return of the Mario Bros. in New Super Mario Bros later this summer. That said, how well does Peach's first true adventure play? Did Nintendo succeed in translating what is loved best about the Mario universe into a unique Peach-centric gameplay, or would this spin-off have been best left unspun?

Short answer: "yes" with an "if." Long answer: "no" with a "but."

Desiré: Fear not, Nintendo definitely succeeded in their goal to make a truly Super Mario-esque game with a Peach edge! From the moment I turned on the game, I felt just like I did as a youngster when I first played Super Mario Bros. 3. The control and physics feel amazingly similar to the older games in the Super Mario series, and it's that feeling that makes it so easy to get into Super Princess Peach. Beyond that, the game is surprisingly free of that rehash sheen, and definitely feels like its own game rather than a cheap cash-in on a popular name.

Jared: The graphics are a thankful return to simple Mushroom Kingdom cartoonishness – you won't find any paper enemies or attempts at avant garde design in this game. Peach and the enemies she faces represent some of the better 2-D design I've seen, and their movements only add vibrance and energy to the game. Not to trash on the following games, but it feels as if Nintendo had never gone through that "how do we make games look different?" stage that spawned Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Story, Paper Mario, and Wind Waker, and instead of trying to make the game break through with a new art style, simply set out to make it look good. They succeeded.

Desiré: Nintendo also nailed the gameplay. There's running, jumping, flying, avoiding enemies, and using various gimmicks to get through puzzles before encountering a boss at the end of a series of similar levels. That's the Mario side shining through. Super Princess Peach brings a lot of new stuff to the table, though. For one thing, the levels aren't nearly as linear as in past Mario games. Warp pipes that once led to simple coin hoards or other secrets now lead to entirely different paths in the game, and finding the ending of a level can be difficult, sometimes even a huge headache. The game plays more like Yoshi's Story, because you'll be backtracking and repeating a lot of the same areas before you get to the end. There are also quite a few items scattered around the levels to find, as well as three toadies on each level that you have to save in order to even beat the game normally, so there's a lot more exploring to do instead of just racing to the finish.

What's also new is the ability to flog your enemies with a parasol instead of just hopping on their heads, easy-access abilities rather than having to find a power-up in a breakable block, and the opportunity to purchase upgrades to health, "vibe" power, and the trusty parasol itself.

Jared: Before I let Desiré go on, a quick rundown of what "vibe power" means: Peach, as representative of female nature, manipulates her emotions to her advantage. She uses "vibe" power to do this, which is a bar underneath her health gauge that depletes as she cries, rages, whathaveyou. To restore the vibe meter you can either collect "vibe crystals" that are fairly sparse around each level or you can pick up certain enemies and suck them up into your parasol, which by some twisted alchemy turns them into vibe power.

Joy - By far the most useful move in the game. It causes a whirlwind around Peach that kills most enemies that touch her and enables her to blow through some obstacles, and also gives her the ability to fly at any time. By quickly hitting the happy heart on the touchscreen I was able to save myself quite a few times from falling to my death, which would have mattered if falling off the level took away a whole life instead of just one half of one heart.

Desiré: Honestly, Joy is worth using just to hear Peach go "Wheeeee!" while she spins around in the air. It's really cute.

Jared: Rage - This is a great move because it essentially makes Peach invulnerable, lets her kill otherwise-invincible baddies, and burns wooden obstacles. It also makes her stomp the ground when she jumps, which makes sense until you buy the parasol upgrade that lets you do that anyway.

Desiré: Gloom - Peach gets big streams of anime-style tears when she cries, which she can use to water plants or solve other water-based puzzles. It also makes her run super fast, which comes into play only once in awhile.

Jared: The running is like the fireball in that it would be extremely useful if I ever remembered to use it. Or if it didn't require using up vibe power to use it. Something in my gaming personality makes me ration that kind of thing, so there were only a few non-essential times when I'd use the super speed.

Calm - "Tell that bitch to chill!!" Exactly, Sammy J. Sometimes Peach just needs to calm the hell down, which works out great for everyone because it essentially converts vibe power into health.

Desiré: There really aren't many random hearts on the game, and when there are I sometimes would grab them without even needing them, therefore having none when I eventually did need some health. So having the ability to basically turn enemies into health was really useful.

That said, there's enough about this game to distinguish it from its patriarchal predecessors, yet at the same time it doesn't feel like a completley alien game with Goombas and Koopas thrown in just to make it reminiscent of Mario's adventures. Super Princess Peach is definitely its own game.

Jared: The catch is, it isn't a game for everyone. Whether due to targeting a female demographic or simply representative of the trend of dumbing down gameplay that's left the majority of games this generation unchallenging, this game is incredibly easy. First off, with you'd always be either one or two hits from death (in the 2-D world at least) so you had to stay on your toes; Peach has a health bar that enables her to take six hits initially, and she can upgrade the health bar to take more hits and also replenish her health at any time during the game. Besides that, she has the ability to fly without having to take a running start, she has two different abilities that kill enemies that approach her, she has a weapon with which to strike, and on top of all that, the game doesn't really offer much challenge to counter all this. The obstacles, which should be obvious from the getgo seeing as they all boil down to the use of one of four mood-abilities, almost ALL have a little helper-block ahead of them that tells you EXACTLY what move to use to get by.

Desiré: Of course, you don't have to hit those blocks to be told what to do. Granted, gamers like Jared who have to talk to every townsperson in an RPG and scan everything in Metroid Prime will probably find it hard to resist finding out what the blocks have to say about whatever level they were on, but I can tell you that I found the game to be much harder than Jared seems to think, and that's partially because I very rarely hit the clue blocks. Also, I never went shopping in Toad's shop, so I didn't upgrade my health or my vibe power until several levels into the game. It wasn't until I enlisted Jared to get me past a difficult boss that he realized the main reason it was so hard for me was that I was still playing at base-level health and vibe power. And although he's generally better at platforming-style games than me, he died on his first try again the boss before he stocked up on extra health and power.

So while aggressive gamers who will try their best to beat the game will find it doesn't put up much of a fight, someone willing to take a more stoic approach will find at least a little more challenge in the title. Even those who blow through the game will find enough fun to be had here, and the mandatory Toad search, while a hassle, helps push the replay without being a complete copout like Super Mario Sunshine's blue coin hunt.

Steady Beat - Peach's coming out party offers fun for everyone, and hints at future brilliance.

Nintendo aimed to make a solid platformer that appealed to both the guys and the gals, and they nailed it. Its lack of different difficultly settings means that it's both a little hard for girls new to gaming and a little soft on guys who have been in the scene for awhile, but while that middle ground might make it unlikely for this to become anyone's favorite title, it still has plenty to appeal to everyone. The visuals will draw you in, the spot-on control expected from Nintendo will keep you playing, and in the end you'll have had a really fun time.

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