"Girl power"

Ready, get set, go
Mario and Luigi have been kidnapped, and Princess Peach goes on a trip to rescue them. This, in a nutshell, describes Super Princess Peach, Nintendo's latest platformer for the DS. For too long, the princess has been troubling the Mario brothers simply by being regularly captured by Bowser and the likes, so it's only right for her to do some work this time round. The role reversal results in an adventure that's not unlike previous titles in the Mario series, but still engaging enough to keep you glued to your DS.

True to the nature of the series, Peach's journey to achieve her objectives is divided into worlds of different themes. These worlds are in turn divided into stages. During these stages, Peach will need to fend off enemies, solve environmental puzzles, and rescue the many captured toads that will pave the way to the freedom of Mario and Luigi. Each world also has a boss at the end, which provides a more challenging sequence that requires Peach to pit her fighting skills against tougher opponents.

To do all these, Peach is given an array of skills. Apart from the usual jumping and sliding, Peach also has an umbrella that doubles up as her weapon. As the game advances, Peach will unlock new moves, which allow her to challenge the environment better. One such moves, for example, allows Peach to use her umbrella to “hang” in the air longer, while another lets her perform a downward-stomping attack. Some of these moves are required to solve puzzles, and are therefore important for Peach's progress.

When you're happy and you know it…
Jumping, sliding and attacking, however, are not the only weapons in Peach's arsenal. It happens that Peach is also a highly emotional lady, and her emotions bear great powers. These emotions are happiness, anger, sadness and delight, and Peach can use them to work wonders. When Peach is happy, she doesn't actually clap her hands. Instead, she spins around until she begins to fly, and we all know that flying is good in a platformer. When she's angry, Peach turns into a human torch (take that, Johnny Storm!), and she can burn wooden bridges to reach hidden areas beneath them. When she's sad, she cries, and her tears are useful in growing giant beanstalks or creating an icy platform, which will in turn help her reach (yet) more hidden areas. Last but not least, when she's delighted, she'll laugh so much until her life bar gets replenished. With powers like this, you may begin to wonder how she managed to get kidnapped so many times in the past.

Apart from solving puzzles, Peach's emotions are, as mentioned earlier, important during boss fights. Every boss she faces in the game will require some form of emotional attack or two, which makes mastering them a must for any player of this game. Thankfully, using emotions is as easy as tapping the four “emoticons” on the touch screen. Using them, however, also depletes her emotional health rapidly, so knowing when to use the correct emotion will definitely help conserve some energy. Nevertheless, replenishment are liberally scattered throughout the stages, so it's quite impossible to run out of ammunition. Even so, Peach can use her umbrella to scoop up most enemies and literally “eat” them to regain emotional strength. Now you know why they said that eating relieves stress.

Your interaction with the touch screen doesn't just stop at controlling Peach's emotions though. Prior to facing a boss, Peach will have to navigate through a series of obstacles without the use of the D-pad. For example, in the first level, Peach has to jump up a series of elastic bands to take on the boss, but guarding the bands are some enemies. To make her jump up successfully, you'll have to hold and drag the band that Peach is on with the stylus, adjust the direction that you want her to jump while making sure that she won't hit an enemy on the way up, and then release the band so that she could be catapulted to a higher band. In other areas, Peach could be floating down from a hilltop, only to be greeted with projectiles underneath, and touching these projectiles with your stylus is the only way to prevent her from being hit. While these are not exactly difficult to do, they do add a new dimension to the gameplay, and make this rather simple game a little more challenging.

And they live happily ever after
The graphics in Super Princess Peach are visually appealing. Nintendo is keeping faith with the simple, yet stunning 2D graphics that made games like Super Mario Bros. III and Yoshi's Island great, and it's not difficult to see why. Watching the action in Super Princess Peach is like reading a beautifully colored fairytale – the pictures may not be top-notch, but the vibrancy of the presentation makes it an immersive experience. Needless to say, the approach may not be everyone's cup of tea, but fans of the series will no doubt appreciate the blast of nostalgia that Nintendo has introduced into this game. To make it an even more retrospective experience, the audios in this game also utilizes a classic cutesy approach. To sum up the sound effect in one sentence, just remember the all familiar “ding” when Peach jumps up to grab a coin.

All in all, Super Princess Peach is a nice little adventure that should appeal to fans of the action platformer genre. The story mode itself is not exactly long, with an approximate life span of eight hours. However, completists could still find it worthwhile to spend time unlocking all items and enemies, as well as engaging in mini-games and bonus stages. The only gripe I've for this game is that it's perhaps a little too easy for seasoned gamers, and this could be a major hindrance for those who'd prefer a tougher challenge. Still, the gameplay, graphics and audios are more than adequate reasons for you to make a date with Princess Peach.

And you should.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/05