La Femme Peach and her poison-tipped umbrella take on Bowser's army of whistling forest animals. It's not much of a fight.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:
Great bosses Tons of stuff to collect and buy Classic enemies and scenery
Cons:
Much easier than other games in this series Uneven, sometimes annoying level design Weak attempts to use DS features
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.
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