Post by: Jonnyboy117 on February 20, 2006, 12:15:08 PM
After nearly twenty years of being rescued, Princess Peach finally gets her chance to do the rescuing. In this nostalgic 2D platformer, Peach runs and jumps through over 40 levels and eight bosses in her quest to free Mario, Luigi, and dozens of Toad retainers from Bowser's evil grip. A new character helps her along. Perry the Parasol is both a weapon and a guide to Peach; he bashes goombas on the head, swallows koopa troopas, and offers advice on how to deal with upcoming boss battles.
Peach also has four "vibes", special powers based on her emotional states. The vibes are activated by touching the lower screen with your thumb, and their usage is limited by a meter that can be refilled by absorbing enemies or picking up refill items. Joy surrounds Peach with a tornado and lets her float high in the air. Rage sets her on fire and is the most powerful attack. Gloom causes Peach to gush fountains of tears and run extremely fast. Calm slowly refills her health meter. The vibes are a bit cumbersome to activate, especially if you need to quickly use Joy to float out of a deadly pit. The corners of your touch screen will be covered in thumbprints, so don't play this game right before committing a serious crime.
Peach's normal attacks are somewhat interesting, but the level designs rarely put them to good use. Using Perry, she can smack enemies, which knocks them back; a second swipe will kill them. Or she can walk over to a stunned enemy to pick it up and carry it overhead. Carried enemies can be thrown upwards or horizontally, which could be a cool mechanic but is almost never required by the game. A stunned enemy can also be swallowed by Perry, which replenishes the vibe meter a bit.
Super Princess Peach is overloaded with cuteness, to the point that many enemies just march around whistling to themselves (until you eat them). The levels are heavily inspired by Super Mario World, featuring some of the same elements like "!" switches and rotating platforms. Green pipes are a given. These classic items give a familiar touch to the levels, but the level design is simply not on par with those old games. For instance, this game's idea of a puzzle is to put a row of icicles in front of an important item, so you have to activate Rage to melt away the ice. That same scenario will be repeated for several stages in a row, with no variation. Some levels resort to incredibly annoying series of pipes or doors which must be entered in a specific sequence. Guess wrong even once, and you have to start the whole sequence over. These sections require no skill, just patience, and lots of it. They certainly aren't fun, especially by the third or fourth time you see them.
Boss battles are much, much better. There are only eight bosses, but each one is unique and quite a bit more challenging than the preceding levels. Perry straight up tells you how to defeat each one, but actually following his advice can be tricky. Usually, you have to use at least one or two vibes to harm the boss, while doing some fancy jumping to avoid attacks. The Calm vibe can keep your life meter full, but since there are no regular enemies to swallow, vibe power must be carefully budgeted. Each boss also has a secondary pattern that comes into play once he has been damaged enough. The boss fights in this game are tense and require judicious use of Peach's powers. The normal levels pale in comparison.
Since you can always use Calm to refill Peach's life meter and then swallow a few easy enemies to refill the vibe meter, you can stay at full power throughout most of the game. The level designs get more taxing after the halfway point, and the bosses tend to be surprisingly difficult, but this is an easy game overall. Experienced fans of the Mario series are going to blow through levels very quickly, and even though there is a lot of stuff to collect, doing so feels dull because the game just isn't very satisfying to play. Nintendo has clearly designed the game with a casual, mostly female audience in mind, and that's fine, but there could have been a "Hard Mode" included for the many hardcore Mario fans who will also be attracted to this game. A couple dozen bonus levels open up after beating the game, and these levels are more challenging and have less junk to collect, but serious gamers will have to push through all the normal levels to gain access.
Super Princess Peach is a fun, old-school platformer with cheerful graphics and sound. You don't need to be female or feminine to enjoy it, but it is geared towards novice players, regardless of gender. Crazed Mario junkies should hold out for the new Mario game for the DS, to be released later this year.
Pros:
Cons:
Graphics: 8.0
Less impressive than Nintendo's other 2D games on DS (like Kirby), but the game has a sharp look with typically bright colors. Many enemies and items are lifted straight out of Super Mario World, which is a cheap but successful trick to add nostalgia. The large portrait of Peach on the touch screen is minimally animated.
Sound: 7.0
Happy music sounds like a more feminine version of the usual Mario game fare. It's fine but doesn't stick with you. There is very little voice-acting for Peach, oddly enough, though she is talkative in other games.
Control: 7.0
Decent, but not quite up to Nintendo standards. Peach's moves are responsive but feel jerky. For instance, attacking while running will cause her to stop dead cold and swing the umbrella. The ability to attack without slowing down is only unlocked after you beat the game. The vibe powers are easy enough to distinguish and reach on the touch screen, but activating these critical moves is a bit iffy since you have to use your thumbs to do it. The use of the DS microphone is ridiculous. In the submarine sequences and one mini-game, you have to constantly blow into the mic…because that's what microphones are for, you know. Blowing.
Lastability: 7.5
Easy stages and fiendish bosses are an unlikely combination. There is content for both casual and hardcore players, but it's all jumbled up when it probably should have been divided into separate modes or separate sets of levels. Still, the game is mostly pleasant, if not very engaging, and the boss battles are excellent.
Gameplay: 8.0
Even if you find the game far too easy, there is plenty to do. Several dozen levels are filled with Toads, coins, songs, puzzle pieces, and mini-games. You can use coins to buy many more items of arguable value in the game's shop. If you're bored by all the collecting, the game does offer many bonus levels with pure platforming.
Final: 7.5
Peach's first adventure has less polish and much less inspiration than a normal Mario game, but it is nevertheless enjoyable and occasionally great. Hardcore gamers should buy it for family members and secretly borrow the game to check it out for themselves.
Post by: Hostile Creation on February 20, 2006, 01:21:29 PM
Post by: Ian Sane on February 20, 2006, 01:47:39 PM
Maybe I'll get it if I find it cheap. It's too bad because this is a 2D Nintendo platformer and thus I naturally am drawn to it.
Is Miyamoto directly involved in the New Super Mario Bros? I've noticed that, aside from Intelligent Systems' typically awesome output, Nintendo's 2D games these days are never quite as magical as their NES and SNES era titles. I'm thinking that's because in those days the 2D titles were the main titles in Nintendo's lineup and had their top guys like Miyamoto working on them. Now their 2D games are kind of like their "B titles" and thus probably get the "B teams" working on them. Thus I want to know about Miyamoto's involvement because I think his absence is what keeps these games from reaching that amazing golden age level.
And remember when 2D games weren't just nostalgia trips but actually tried to break new ground? This is what makes Metroid Fusion so special to me because it felt like a real new Metroid game instead of just a throwback to old times. Too many times I've noticed 2D games are just full of references to older games and play kind of like a greatest hits album.
Post by: Bill Aurion on February 20, 2006, 01:48:42 PM
Post by: TheYoungerPlumber on February 20, 2006, 01:52:41 PM
Post by: Jonnyboy117 on February 20, 2006, 01:54:05 PM
Post by: Bill Aurion on February 20, 2006, 02:03:40 PM
Post by: Ian Sane on February 20, 2006, 06:59:26 PM
Okay that's pretty much the best credentials a guy working on a 2D platformer could have so that's very encouraging. Anything he's done lately? In comparison who made Super Princess Peach and what else have they worked on?
Post by: TheYoungerPlumber on February 20, 2006, 07:50:32 PM
Let me put it this way: when was Super Princess Peach announced? For how many E3s have we heard about that game? Gee, I don't remember seeing it at E3 at all! How many times have we seen New Super Mario Bros? Hm, well, I remember playing it last E3, and we had footage a year before. Yeah, I'm not worried. It's being brewed slowly for the fullest flavor.
Post by: Infernal Monkey on February 20, 2006, 08:53:11 PM
Quote
Crazed Mario junkies should hold out for the new Mario game for the DS, to be released later this year.
Crazed Mario junkies will be the only ones buying this though.
Post by: Mario on February 20, 2006, 09:27:12 PM
I sort of want this... but I think i'll chose my manhood instead.
Damn it, I need an excuse to buy this...
Post by: KDR_11k on February 20, 2006, 11:31:44 PM
Post by: Smash_Brother on February 21, 2006, 10:12:43 AM
Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
I hate how Nintendo always lowers the difficulties. Come on, SMB got enough people started in gaming, you can't tell me you have to make the game even easier for newbies. These days Nintendo games start at zero difficulty and by the time they start reaching "moderately challenging" and you think that now it's getting good the game is over. What the hell? I mean, I'm not a particularly good player and even I blow through most Nintendo games in no time.
The problem is that they get bitched at so heavily if the game is even remotely difficult.
I remember SMS's case where Shiggy was basically forced to say, "The next Mario game will be made easier." because of all the whining about the game's difficulty.
I'm still scratching my head over that one...
Post by: Ian Sane on February 21, 2006, 10:29:49 AM
I remember SMS's case where Shiggy was basically forced to say, 'The next Mario game will be made easier.' because of all the whining about the game's difficulty.
I'm still scratching my head over that one..."
The problem with Super Mario Sunshine is that it had an incredibly random difficulty. One objective would be the hardest thing in the world to pull off and the next would take no effort at all. There was no curve, it was just a scattershot of multiple difficulties with no ryhme or reason. It didn't help that the game was much more restrictive than Super Mario 64 regarding what order the objectives had to be done in. Plus a lot of stuff was made harder because of wild swinging camera angles.
Nintendo tends to go with total extremes with their difficulty. If you complain that a game is too easy then the next game will be way too hard. If you complain that a game is too hard then the next game will offer no challenge whatsoever. They need to find a balance. This isn't just a Nintendo problem. Developers in general these days seem to have trouble finding a good balance.
I'd say Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island offer a good example of what the difficulty level of a Nintendo game should be like. They're not really hard games but you're not going to breeze through those games on your first try without dying either. In regards to more puzzle based gameplay the difficulty level should be like Super Metroid: challenging but not impossible to solve logically and with no hand holding.
Post by: Bill Aurion on February 21, 2006, 10:47:06 AM
That said, both SM64 and Mario Sunshine were good difficulties, in my opinion...If I can beat it, then it's hardly difficult...
Post by: Mario on February 21, 2006, 06:15:17 PM
Quote
Originally posted by: Smash_BrotherQuote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
I hate how Nintendo always lowers the difficulties. Come on, SMB got enough people started in gaming, you can't tell me you have to make the game even easier for newbies. These days Nintendo games start at zero difficulty and by the time they start reaching "moderately challenging" and you think that now it's getting good the game is over. What the hell? I mean, I'm not a particularly good player and even I blow through most Nintendo games in no time.
The problem is that they get bitched at so heavily if the game is even remotely difficult.
I remember SMS's case where Shiggy was basically forced to say, "The next Mario game will be made easier." because of all the whining about the game's difficulty.
I'm still scratching my head over that one...
I think what he meant there was the basic controls were too hard, most people couldn't just pick it up and play it straight away.
Post by: Nephilim on February 21, 2006, 07:00:08 PM
squirting your boat to the boss on sunshine was harder then proberly any other mario game stage!
difficulty went up...see
Post by: Hostile Creation on February 21, 2006, 07:16:22 PM
Post by: KDR_11k on February 21, 2006, 11:53:58 PM
I'd say Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island offer a good example of what the difficulty level of a Nintendo game should be like.
I'd say SMW moreso than YI, that was a bit easy.
