Super Princess Peach

"Not quite as girly as you might think."

Despite the appearance of this gender- geared game, I was very excited for Super Princess Peach. The 2D-return to the Super Mario Bros. roots was the long-awaited sequel to Yoshi's Island. Not to dismiss the ground-breaking Super Mario 64 or addictive Super Mario Sunshine, but the old school gamer in me longed for some of that familiar Mario action I grew up on. Here, finally, Nintendo has answered the pleas of long-time fans, but does Princess Peach's first hero-outing also mean her quest will be an easy one?

This time, you play as Princess Peach as she sets out to rescue Mario and friends from Bowser, who has captured them with the power of the Vibe Wand. Since Peach was on vacation during Bowser's attack, she was not caught in the spell, but this leaves her to face Bowser and his army all alone. Well, almost alone. She is accompanied on her journey by a mysterious parasol named Perry. He travels with Peach on her quest, though his involvement to what's going on in the Mushroom Kingdom seems to be more than just a coincidence... Granted it's the typical "Hero-Saves-Princess"... er... "Prince" story, but Super Princess Peach pulls it off with such finesse and humor that you really don't mind.

Graphically, Super Princess Peach looks almost identical to Super Mario World. In fact, I dare say many of the same sprites were recycled from Super Mario World. Obviously said sprites were updated, if for nothing else than because enemies can come in a variety of emotional states. Naturally I have no complaints about the graphics since this is exactly the sort of game I was looking forward to- Beautifully animated and brightly colored sprites are a welcome relief from the constant stream of low-res 3D games that seem to be infesting the Nintendo DS as of late.

And so too does the audio seem to mimic those classic 16-bit titles of that wonderful bygone era. The music is what you'd expect from a Mario game- Colorful, chipper and almost all-too cheery, but appropriate nonetheless. The audio effects are all the familiar signature sounds from the Mario grab-bag of samples, so you'll feel right at home here. All in all, nothing technically brilliant, but it doesn't matter because it's got that familiar feeling you've come to expect and love from a Nintendo game.

Control-wise you have here a game you should be intimately familiar with as, on the surface, it plays just like Super Mario World. The difference here, aside from incorporate unique moves for Princess Peach (though, for the most part, they are just variations of Mario play mechanics), is the use of the Nintendo DS functions like the microphone and touch screen. The touch screen is used to control Princess Peach's different emotional states which, in turn, are used to overcome various obstacles. While it may not seem like much, it is primarily a platform game, so it shouldn't be surprising that the mini-games make more use of the touch screen. The use of the microphone is limited to "blowing" in to it for various reasons, none of which happens very often.

I'm finding it difficult to really find anything I can complain about in Super Princess Peach- It's a solid, well-designed 2D platformer that takes advantage of the superior hardware it's on. The fact that it "feels" 16-bit can't be blamed on either the system or the software since this is precisely the type of game I was hoping Nintendo would make. If anything, I would say the lack of levels would be my only gripe since it feels like it's over way too quickly (and the typical Mario title averages eight "worlds" with eight levels in each world).

Wow, are there a lot of extras. In fact, there is an entire shop in the game dedicated to buying many of these extras. Not only can you buy new moves for Peach (in the form of parasol-upgrades), there are soundtracks to unlock or purchase, mini-games to discover and buy, a puzzle room where you can only work on the puzzle if you've found all the pieces and much, much more. In fact, this is one of those games that will keep you playing just to uncover, unlock or purchase everything hidden away on the cartridge just because it's all so much fun to do!

If you consider yourself any kind of Mario fan, you owe it to yourself to add this game to your library- Sure it's a tad on the easy side and you run the risk of your sister and/or wife/girlfriend stealing your time away from the DS to play this game (as if Animal Crossing: Wild World and Nintendogs doesn't already do that enough), but it's well-worth a new trip down a very familiar path.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/12/09

Game Release: Super Princess Peach (US, 02/27/06)