"Warning, female emotions and talking parasols abound"

If there is one universal truth I know as a male, it is this: the female mind is a delicate thing. A one-legged dinosaur walking a tight rope, if you will. Females have the uncanny tendency to slip from ecstatic to manic-depressive in the blink of an eye (or two, depending on how many you're blessed with), switch to super-angst mode, and end up back at happiness just as fast. In defense of the ladies, however, not all of them don pink, Victorian-style dresses and talking parasols, but in Super Princess Peach, this is exactly the insanity you'll be toying with.

I have FURY!
Super Princess Peach follows the tried and true platforming design of SNES greats like Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island as a Mario-styled platformer with some little design quirks. The game follows a simple layout of "smash baddies, reach exit" that has worked for so many other games of the genre, but the games real burst of originality comes in the form of Peach's four "vibes". By tapping on one of the four heart-shaped emoticons on the bottom screen, you'll be met with a reaction hinted at by the expression on the symbol's face. For example, tapping the blue, unhappy looking heart will cause Peach's tear ducts to work overtime as water erupts from her eyes by the gallon. Each of her other emotions have a similar effect, setting Peach ablaze, healing her, or giving her the gift of flight. All of these abilities are -- of course -- used to tackle pretty obvious puzzles that usually guard the level's three hidden Toads, or other unlockable goodies.

The game is decently sized, with around 50 levels to play through, each containing hidden -- or not so hidden -- items to find. Aside from the aforementioned Toads, these items include new abilities, unlockable music, puzzle pieces, and minigames, which I'll dive into a little later. As I touched on above, each level has three hidden Toads, and by finding all of them in the game, (yes, three from each level in the game) you'll gain access to the final level. It's all pretty typical of the platforming genre, and the only real downfall of the game is how incredibly easy it is. Though each level of the game contains an item-hiding puzzle or two, they're never a challenge to figure out, thanks to the handy-dandy hint box right next to it that more or less shoves the answer down your throat (Look, the ice is blocking your path! I think fire beats ice, hyuk-hyuk.) Boss fights are watered down and pointless for the same reason, thanks to that over-zealous hint box located right outside of the boss room warp pipe. For example, the hint box for the first boss in the game literally says "When its mouth is open, make it swallow a wave of water! It's weak spot? Maybe that big belly button...". Yes, the hints are that specific. I think they should've specifically told me to jump on his belly though, the barrage of implication just wasn't enough.

In my opinion, the amount of hand-holding the game does takes away almost all of the challenge of having to experiment with Peach's different vibe abilities, making them seem tacked on and cumbersome. The game takes away all the need of guessing, and leaves you with a lot of "do this, then follow up with this" commands, which makes a lot of the adventure a breeze, and in turn, a bore to play. As I said, this is really just reflective of my personal opinion, as I understand Super Princess Peach was marketed and developed for a younger, less "hardcore" demographic.

Pretty in pink.
The graphics of Super Princess Peach are pretty typical Mario fare, with brightly colored character and enemy sprites on top of even more colorful backgrounds. For being a year and a half into the DS' life cycle, this game doesn't pull off much above GBA-quality graphics (aside from the second screen, of course.) Kirby: Canvas Curse -- which came out almost a year ago -- had seemingly cleaner, crisper graphics, but then again, it was a smaller game contest-wise. The graphics aren't bad, they just don't seem to push the DS hardware as far as other 2D games on the handheld already have (Castlevania, I'm looking at you.)

The hills are alive.
Like the graphics, the sound of Super Princess Peach is exactly what you'd expect from a Super Mario spin-off. The music is almost sickeningly upbeat, boasting steel drums in the beach-styled levels and spooky theremin lines in the ghost houses. All the sound effects are spot-on and feel right at home among the colorful and cutesy style of the game. When you go to beat on enemies Peach emits squeaky battle cries of blood lust and when you whack a turtle with a talking umbrella, it sounds just like you'd expect it to. Also on the positive side of things, the aural aspect of Super Princess Peach wasn't overly compressed, so all the whacks and murmurs sound crystal clear. No low bit-rate encoding here, kids, this game sounds good.

Need the goods? Talk to the shroomhead.
When it comes to replay value, there's not a lot of it to be had here. Being able to purchase new attacks, health and vibe upgrades, music, and minigames is a great idea and helps to extend the game's life, but not so much that you'll find yourself replaying the game nineteen times. As you travel about, you'll find minigames that can be accessed via the menu on the map screen, as well as puzzle pieces that, when collected, unlock little puzzle games to play outside the main game. The puzzles and minigames aren't amazing by any means, and just serve as a way to keep you mildly entertained while not playing the main adventure. The only real replay value here is going back through and collecting each music piece and buying all the abilities and upgrades. Like I said above, there's not a whole lot of reasons to pick this game back up more than once or twice after you beat it.

All mood-swingin'-female jokes aside, this is a great game. The sprites and backgrounds are bright and colorful, and really fit the mood(s) of the game. The music is pretty typical of a faux-Mario game, and although none of it is truly memorable, it doesn't suffer from the needless fuzz and distortion caused by low bit-rate encoding. Being able to purchase new attacks, health upgrades, and minigames also helps to bring the game into its own and separate it from the sometimes tiresome platforming category. For all the positive things I can say, the one true shortcoming that really stands out in Super Princess Peach is just how easy it is. Throughout the game, you'll be dragged by the arm through every puzzle and boss fight, making an already easy gaming experience even easier. This is more of a personal complaint though, as the game was geared towards a younger audience. To sum up this moody review, if Mario-style platforming is your passion then you have no well-mannered reason to pass this game up...

...Unless you're concerned with maintaining your supposed masculinity, and if that's the case, just be sure to pull up to Gamestop in an SUV with the likeness of a naked woman holding an M16 painted on the side -- that oughtta cover it.

Gameplay - 9
Graphics - 8
Sound - 7
Replay Value - 6
Total (not an average) - 8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/06