Super Princess Peach (Nintendo DS) - Review by Trent

Introduction

It might be a bit "girly", and questionable to your man hood, but looking at the title as a Video Game- and not what it represents to the industry for growth into other markets, is Super Princess Peach a solid Platformer? Or does it spin out into emotional turmoil before anything can happen.

Gameplay

Like the Mario series, Super Princess Peach pretty much copies the platforming style from the series and gives it a fresh new flavour. Gone is the fat plumber and his lanky sidekick brother and now the game contains a new face- instead of been kidnapped she decided to stay at home this time around which has resulted in Mario and her switching roles. This life swap mechanic isn't without its new tricks for the trade. Like all good princesses she takes emotions a bit too far, and has a set of four emotions which have been pushed the extremities, so far in fact they help her reach new areas of the levels or perform actions. With a little swing of her magic parasol she can wack, smack and glide (as well as swimming of all things) using the magical properties of her funky little parasol. Of course it's one of her weapons against the evil Bowser but if you're feeling a little flat, like I said before, her emotions- joy, rage, gloom and calm can be used strategically against the armies sent out to destroy you.

If you're thinking because this game revolves around emotions and is a "girls" game that it would be much simpler compared to other platformers. Well your stereotype would almost be right, the gameplay in Super Princess Peach does have a much easier learning curve, but I wouldn't say the gameplay is any harder than New Super Mario, or other Mario games for the Nintendo DS. Sadly though on the same token, gone is the "size life" system of past Mario games, instead it is replaced with hearts like Zelda games. There is also a "magic meter" for the emotions. Instead of Mario's fascination with Stars, Princess Peach must use her skills to find and track down the missing Toads in each level. This gives the levels a fresh mission especially with the roundup of emotions at your disposal to alter the end result.

Controls

On the touch screen is the range of emotions which you can click and use to your whim. You don't really need the stylus to click these, and the more optimum control style would be to use your thumb to click on the buttons (which cover a quadrant each). Everything else works with the buttons on the Nintendo DS, and is in a very traditional button setup, so new players regardless of age and gender should pick the game up and not expect any disasters control scheme wise.

Graphics

The graphics are much more cheerful then Mario titles, and like Yoshi Island gives the spin off a unique style compared to the main series. While the colours are more cheerful and happy tones, they are deeper and lush compared to the colour pallet in Mario titles. This gives in some areas a much darker colour pallet which still has the same enjoyable feeling to it. Sprite wise they are quite solid designs and while they are not "2.5D" or other gimmicky graphic styles such as what New Super Mario Bro. DS uses, it still gives an efficient yet modern approach to the graphics. The graphics are closer to Yoshi Island's graphics in colour pallet and sprite design.

Sound

The soundtrack for Super Princess Peach in some ways is much like other Mario titles. Though like the game the music is riddled with tunes to make the game seem more "calming" and "girlish", to try and appeal to the female market. Though besides my criticisms with the soundtrack it seems to work, the music is much more relaxing and it does seem to fit well. There are also sound effects for everything else under the sun, which seem to be very similar to what fans would expect from a "Mario" title, though with its own unique style.

Dual screen

The Dual Screen use is quite simplistic, bottom screen is used for touching the various emotions which Princess Peach can use and the top screen is where all the action is. Overall it works so there aren't any arguments here, though it would have been nice to see more use on the dual screen set up.

Final comments

While this game might try too hard in some areas to appeal to the fairer gender, at the end of the day- the game does have a quite solid platformer aspect to it, as well as interesting gimmicks and ideas.

Pro: Simular quality to Mario games, Interesting unique concepts, Regardless of the new "improvements" to make the game "easier" platformer wise is quite solid
Con: Tries too hard to be easier and more appealing to the female audience, Hearts and other ways to make the game "easier" might have riddled the game a bit too easy for veterans
Final score: 7.8

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