Video Game / Princess Peach: Showtime!

The show must go on!

Princess Peach: Showtime! is an Action-Adventure game developed by Good-Feel for the Nintendo Switch. The first game in the Super Mario Bros. franchise to star Princess Peach in a leading role since 2005's Super Princess Peach, it released on March 22, 2024.

What was meant to be a relaxing night of theatre for Peach and her Toads goes horribly wrong when the mysterious witch Grape and her minions, the Sour Bunch, take over the Sparkle Theatre and trap the performers in their own plays. Working with the theatre's guardian, Stella, Peach must travel into the various plays and transform into various roles — from a swordfighter, to a detective, to a pastry chef, to a kung-fu fighter, to a cowgirl, to a ninja — to set things right.

Previews: Nintendo Direct trailer, Transformation Trailer, Transformation Trailer: Act II, Overview Trailer

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Princess Peach: Showtime! is proud to present the following tropes:

• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: The Cowboy plays all feature horses that have visible "marionette strings" to make them look like puppets. Most are with the Sour Bunch and a single white horse that Peach and eventually the Sparkla rides. The latter is animated like a regular horse, but the former's legs are all shown bending in angles abnormal to real horses but perfectly in line with their puppet appearance.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Swordfighter Peach routinely slashes through steel breastplates despite using a rapier - a thrusting weapon not intended for such usage. Remember: this is a stage play.
• The Ace: The Sparklas are shown to be this, each having mastered one of the ten styles of theater shown at Sparkle Theater. Peach ultimately proves even better, mastering all ten styles, which actually earns her the Sparklas' respect and admiration.
• Action Girl: Peach is the only player character, and must defeat the Sour Bunch.
  • She can use Stella's ribbon to fend off minor Sour Bunch members as well as the various mini-bosses that Grape sends against her.
  • Swordfighter Peach, Kung Fu Peach, and Mighty Peach are extremely straightforward in their use of violence.
  • Cowgirl Peach uses her lasso to solve puzzles for the most part, but is not above roping up the Sour Bunch, or using the lasso to throw exploding barrels at them.,
  • Ninja Peach is just as lethal with kunai, but she can only strike from stealth.
  • Figure Skater Peach relies mostly on platforming mechanics, but she is a Dance Battler when need be.
  • Dashing Thief Peach uses her grapple gun that can stun robots.
  • Mermaid Peach tends to use a school of fish to solve puzzles, but she also can command eels to crash into things.
  • Detective Peach has no combat and uses only her brain to solve crimes.
  • Pâtissière Peach doesn't fight at all, the closest she gets being the two bake-offs in Act 3.
  • Radiant Peach is definitely not above blasting her way through foes.
• Ambiguous Gender: The Cowboy Sparkla is labeled “Cowgirl Sparkla” during the level where they’re rescued, but lacks the eyelashes denoting female Theets, leaving their gender uncertain in the game.
• Ambiguously Related: As if Peach's resemblance to Rosalina wasn't strong enough on her own, Super Radiant Peach looks almost exactly like Rosalina, just without her Blinding Bangs.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Assisting the Ribboner in a level gets Peach a "Dress Ribbon," which lets her change the print on her princess dress or Stella's coloring.
• Anti-Frustration Feature: Two of the Sparkle Gems for the Grape rematch require that you not get hit on both her Madame Grape and Grape the Great phases respectively. The good news is that if you get hit during the latter, resetting will just start you over from the beginning of that phase and not the very beginning, which is a good thing considering how long both fights are combined.
• Antepiece: "Castle of Thorns'', fittingly for the first level, has little setpieces that teach the player how the game works:
  • The player is taken through a brief tutorial on Sparkle Power and how it works to brighten up Theets. Shortly after the tutorial ends and the level begins proper, Peach is subtly pointed in the direction of some ungrown plants. The player, after being taught about Sparkle, will use the Sparkle Power on the plants, which will yield three coins. This naturally will encourage the player to experiment with the ribbon and see what other objects they can interact with.
  • Players then face off with their first Sour Bunch minions. They stand in place, and the player is prompted to use the ribbon on them, showing how Peach defeats enemies with the Ribbon. Then they run into more Sour Bunch minions, only these guys will start moving toward Peach, quickly putting the players' skills to the test to attack the enemies before they move in.
  • Next, the player is faced with a series of platforms. They are taught about jumping by using the A button to jump up the platforms and move onward. Two enemies will jump from the background into the foreground and start attacking. Players and especially Veteran Mario players, will likely try to experiment and jump on the enemies...only to be in for a nasty surprise as Peach gets hurt instead. Teaching the player a harsh lesson that this is not a "Mario" game and the Goomba Stomp has been eliminated from this spinoff, and they must use the ribbon to eliminate enemies.
• Arc Villain:
  • In each Kung Fu level, Peach faces off against an evil Darkla marionette who also knows kung fu. Defeating him in the third act is key to saving the Kung Fu Sparkla.
  • Similarly, in each of the Figure Skater levels, an evil Darkla figure skater antagonizes Peach. He’s the one protecting the Figure Skater Sparkla.
• Arch-Enemy: If Bowser is Mario's nemesis, King Boo is Luigi's nemesis, Captain Syrup is Wario's nemesis, and King K. Rool is Donkey Kong's nemesis, then Grape easily cements herself as Peach's nemesis. Grape even lampshades it before the final battle, calling Peach the perfect Foil for her.
• Ash Face: Overcooking the cookies as Patissiere Peach causes the batter to blow up in her face. If there are Theets helping her out, their faces get sooted up as well.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Each boss has an orb of Darkle that powers them, their bodies being made from machinery—Disco Wing being the only one that looks semi-organic. Exposing the dark energy and using Sparkle to disperse/purify it is what truly damages the bosses. Grape's is never exposed during her first battle, hinting at her pulling a Victory Fakeout after her body disappears with only her mask remaining.
• Automatic New Game: The opening cutscene plays the first time you boot the game up. Only after clearing the tutorial does the game start on the title screen.
• Badass Adorable: Any of the bystander Theets that help out are this by default given their utterly adorable appearance with their giant color-changing noses. But the Sparklas take the cake for this, as their outfits make them look like kids playing dress-up but are just as effective as Peach is in their respective roles.
• Badass Bystander: There are several Theets in the various plays, most notably the knightly ones in the Swordfighter plays that will attack the thorns after Peach uses her ribbon to heal (or possibly simply inspire) them.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The initial June 2023 trailer ended with Peach's dress glowing blue, with people assuming she simply gets a basic Power-Up. The September 2023 trailer reveals that she's actually transforming into Swordfighter Peach.
  • Stella assumes that Grape sequestered herself in a boss door on the top floor, befitting her Big Bad status. Turns out she's in the basement behind a second seal powered by the ten Sparklas' prisons.
• Banister Slide: Peach will slide down the banisters if she jumps on top of them.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: As Kung Fu Peach, Peach is a highly skilled martial artist with nary a weapon in sight.
• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: The Valentine's Day trailer shows Peach, the Princess Classic of the Mario cast, wearing a midriff-baring top while transformed into a mermaid, which also alludes to how mermaids are commonly portrayed in media. This contrasts with most of her other transformations, which are chaste.
• Bat Out of Hell: The second and third Swordfighter stage includes ghostly bats who can attack Peach.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Villainous example. Grape took control of the Sparkle Theater with her master plan to create the greatest tragedy by destroying the hopes of the Theets. What Grape fails to take account for is that the subject of a tragedy can be anyone - that includes herself. Grape does get the tragedy she yearned for when she is defeated. In the end, Grape is reduced to a mask floating all alone in the ocean, a tragic fall from the powerful sorceress she used to be.
• Behemoth Battle: Downplayed. This happens in Mighty Peach's second play where the Professor and the freed scientists use their programming to make her giant in order to fight the equally-large alien mech at the end…except that this is a stage play, so she's actually fighting on a Toku-style tiny set with the actors' voices coming from offstage.
• Big Bad: Grape, the leader of the Sour Bunch who takes over the Sparkle Theater.
• Bluff the Impostor: When meeting the Junior Detective in Detective Sparkla's prison, the Detective asks his junior a few questions. The first claims that there are no cushions on the couch in their office when attentive players will remember there were since he was hiding behind a large pile of them in the tutorial. The Junior Detective doesn't notice or question the conflicting information.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: The Ninja Darkla starts out disguised as a red samurai guard before revealing himself once the wrecked armor turns into a Ninja Log. He appears similar to a basic Sour Bunch minion and only takes one hit to take out, but is much faster as he flees with the secret scrolls he took.
• Braids of Action: In the trailer, Kung Fu Peach ties her long hair into a braid. She also gets her hair braided into two loops as Pâtissière Peach.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In a few levels, Theets will occasionally be mind-controlled or possessed by the Sour Bunch. Of particular note, the Darkla figure skater kidnaps the dancers of the play to take as his own, a Sour Bunch vendor gives out cookies that turn the Theets attending the Sweet Festival into sugar-ravenous zombies, and the Pâtissière Sparkla is possessed/controlled by the Pâtissièr Darkla when Peach and Stella find her.
• Brick Joke: During Grape's initial attack, Peach loses her crown and the Toads scramble to retrieve it while being blown out of the theater. After Grape is defeated, the Toads return with Peach's crown, much to her delight.
• Busman's Holiday: Princess Peach and some Toads visit the Sparkle Theater with hopes to enjoy the dazzling theater shows, only for Grape to show up and take over the theater. Peach has to step up and save the day.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Grape treats her villain status as a role in a grand stage production, aspiring to create tragedies and spread despair. She gets overly excited when Peach reaches the final stage, stating she would make a great Foil for her tragedy to defeat her at the last moment just as everyone had put all of their hopes in her.
• Cats Are Mean: There are two feline-like bosses in the game. Purrjector Cat is based on a housecat, while Spotlion is more of a lion.
• Chained to a Railway: The Cowboy Sparkla finds himself chained to a pole in the middle of a railway with a Runaway Train controlled by the Sour Bunch heading straight towards him. Luckily, Cowgirl Peach is able to get to him just in time and save him before they both escape his prison.
• Character Customisation: There is a ribbon for either Peach or Stella, allowing the user to change her costume by rescuing a Theet in each play (or getting a gold trophy in rehearsal). There are a few additional ones for purchase for both Peach and Stella in the costume shop.
• Cherry Blossoms: In the trailer, Peach's transformation into Ninja Peach is accompanied by cherry blossom petals.
• Closed Circle: Madame Grape's magic keeps the doors locked, so nobody can get in or out of the occupied Sparkle Theater until she's done.
• Clothes Make the Superman: There are shining sparkles that grant Peach a costume that confers special abilities upon her, as she doesn't have them in her regular clothes. Special mention goes to her Mighty Peach ensemble, which multiplies her strength by a factor of thirty, according to its in-game description in the Collection menu.
• Collision Damage: Bumping into the Sour Bunch makes Peach lose one of her hearts. Unlike most Mario games, the Goomba Stomp doesn't work.
• Combat Stilettos: Shown in the trailer. As per usual, Peach embarks on this great performance in her royal dress and heels. Swordfighter Peach fights while wearing high heeled boots, and Dashing Thief Peach does her escapades in high heeled boots as well. Figure Skater Peach also wears high heels, only hers are pumps with skate-blades equipped.
• Combined Energy Attack: Played with. In order to open Grape's boss door, the ten Sparklas donate their Sparkle energy to Peach, transforming her to Radiant Peach. After Peach drops her transformation upon Grape's apparent defeat, Grape transforms into Grape the Great, destroying the Sparkle Theater in the process. All the Theets on the island put their hope in Peach and this manifests as even more Sparkle energy. The energy lets Peach transform again and even further into Super Radiant Peach.
• Continuity Nod: in the opening cutscene, Peach’s castle and its surrounding grounds appear exactly as they did in Super Mario Odyssey.
• Cool Crown:
  • For the second time in a game, Princess Peach loses her crown when Grape blows it away. Fortunately, it’s given back to her in the end credits.
  • As Radiant Peach, Peach has a sparkling crystal star crown placed on her head.
• Corridor Cubbyhole Run: The fight against Light Fang requires Peach to hide behind walls to avoid its searchlight gaze. To make matters trickier, some of the walls can and will get destroyed by its tail, robbing you of cover.
• Cosmic Motifs: Peach's companion for the game is Stella, the eight-point star-shaped guardian of the Sparkle Theater.
• Costume Evolution: Peach's dress has a small but noticable difference in design in this game compared to her usual look. The front of her dress has two added grooves that go down the sides near her brooch.
• Cowboy: One of Peach's transformations in the Transformation Trailer is a cowgirl, capable of using lassos to ensnare enemies and items, and is seen riding a horse.
• Creepy Basement: The basement of the Sparkle Theater is where all the Sparklas are imprisoned and where Grape is finally fought.
• Creepy Crows: The Festival of Sweets play gets invaded by Sour Bunch crows who steal the sweets, prompting the bakers and Pâtissière Peach to make new ones before the festival starts.
• Critical Annoyance: Downplayed. If Peach is down a single heart, the Life Meter will constantly show the heart beating and flashing, but you are thankfully spared an alarm.
• Dance Battler: Peach's new Figure Skating form has her perform various fancy pirouettes and acrobatic and graceful skating moves with her ice-skates to defeat her enemies.
• The Dark Arts: Darkle, the evil counterpart of the Sparkle magic of Stella, which is used by Grape.
• Darkest Hour: Grape isn't done yet and re-emerges stronger than ever, becoming the gigantic Grape The Great and reducing the Sparkle Theater to rubble. Peach is completely powerless to stop her from destroying the island. Fortunately, the Theets using the power of their hope and positivity surrounds Peach with overwhelming Sparkle Energy to become Super Radiant Peach for the final battle.
• A Day in the Limelight: In a literal sense, as Peach is the star of the game once again, with her adventure based around a theater play, as the trailer shows. The limelight commonly descends upon her or some Theets in dramatic scenes. And in contrast to the last game where all of the major characters showed up and Peach was the protagonist, Showtime! doesn't even have appearances by the Mario Bros., much less Bowser and his minions, with even Peach's faithful Toad retainers shortly kicked out of the theater, making this game truly all about her.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: A justified example as Peach doesn't technically die. There are no lives, and not even a Game Over. If Peach's hearts run out, she gives up and the player has to start the current segment over again, at the cost of 10 coins. If the player doesn't have any coins or less than ten coins, they lose their whole count and just start over anyway. Fail too many times at a level and the game takes pity on you and give you the option to skip the level entirely.
• Detectives Follow Footprints: Detective Peach can use her magnifying glass to track down footprints.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: The Pâtissièr Darkla will take time out of baking his own cookies to try and stomp on yours during the bake-off against him. If you pay attention to your surroundings, all he accomplishes is slowing himself down.
• Distressed Dude: The majority of the Sparklas are male, with Pâtissière, Mermaid, and Figure Skater being the only females, and all of them are being held prisoner in the theater's basement and must be rescued by Peach from varying predicaments.
• Double-Meaning Title: The title can represent the adventure stating that Princess Peach is taking to the stage in the game, or reflects that it's a literal showtime for Princess Peach as the playable character.
• Dramatic Irony: If Grape knew anything about theater, she would know that anyone can be the subject of a tragedy. Most notably, it tends to happen to those who are in positions of power. Like her.
• Dub Name Change: The Sour Bunch, the villains of the game, are known as グレープ劇団 (gureepu gekidan, lit. "the Grape Troupe") in the Japanese version, tying into the theme of theatre and stage play.
• Easy-Mode Mockery: Fail twice at a play and Stella will offer the player a heart charm to extend Peach's hearts from five to eight, but fail a few more times in the same section after that and the game takes pity on you and gives you the option to just skip the level entirely. Earning this ironically takes more effort than succeeding.
• Edible Theme Naming: It is perhaps not a coincidence that, in a game starring Princess Peach (a type of sweet fruit), the main antagonist introduced in the trailer is named Grape (a type of sour fruit).
• Evil Counterpart: A few of the plays have antagonists that are a cut above the rest of the Sour Bunch besides the floor bosses. Given the Sparklas meant to be the lead roles, these higher-powered enemies are Darklas.
  • The Cowboy Darkla is a bandit that steals all the valuables of a town and is confronted in his hideout. After his defeat, one of his henchmen assumes leadership in the second act and hijacks a train to destroy the town for revenge.
  • First hinted at in the second act of the Pâtissière play with cookies that turn Theets into sugar-ravenous zombies, the Pâtissièr Darkla works mainly from the shadows until Peach arrives to save the Pâtissière Sparkla.
  • The Ninja Darkla poses as a red samurai guard in the first act, but flees with the secret scrolls he stole when exposed. He uses the same disguise when about to publicly execute the Ninja Sparkla in the latter's prison.
  • The Figure Skater Darkla kidnaps the dancers of the play to use for his own performance and returns in the second act to try ruining the parade. He also returns in the Figure Skater Sparkla's prison as the main guard.
  • The Kung Fu Darkla attacks the training hall in the first act and returns in the second act as well. He also holds the Kung Fu Sparkla captive and faces Peach with a power-up in one last rematch for the third act.
• Evolving Title Screen: The initial title screen shows the Grape-Occupied Sparkle Theater, and after defeating Grape, you get a new title screen of the Sparkle Theater restored to its bright and shiny splendor, now with Theets walking around outside.
• Exact Words: Grape gleefully exclaims "let the tragedy begin" before her final confrontation with Peach. She was correct, a tragedy was well underway, just not the one in her script.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: The outlaw Sour Bunch enemies in the Cowboy plays use giant blunderbuss-like guns which fire large shells haphazardly bolted together into a ball shape.
• Fanservice: A downplayed example, since this is a Nintendo game (and based on a theater production besides), but Peach's gorgeous figure gets shown off in both the Mermaid and Figure Skater outfits.
• Fastball Special: The Mighty Sparkla is used as a projectile by Mighty Peach to pulverize incoming meteors.
• Feathered Fiend: Disco Wing, the boss of the first floor, is a bird with a big pink afro and the body of a disco ball. Disco Wing attacks by dropping disco ball "eggs" on Peach, who has to timely crack them open as she's flying over to hit her.
• Field Power Effect: Spotlion can use magic to convert the entire arena he fights in to mirror-like surfaces, making his light-based attacks bounce off the walls, floor and ceiling. This also allows him to freeze and bring individual reflections of himself out of the mirror background for multiple angles of attack and to hide his real body. Though doing so means his mirrored copies have no reflection themselves, and his real body will be smoking if he's taken enough damage.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: When their Darkle is destroyed/purified, Grape's bosses on each floor dissolve into nothing. After being initially defeated by Radiant Peach, Grape's mask is still on the ground and soon reveals herself to still be alive after Peach drops her transformation.
• Floating Limbs: The Big Bad, Grape, has a pair of floating opera gloves for hands. She keeps this trait when she becomes Grape the Great, with her hands becoming more bigger and metallic.
• Flying Seafood Special: The Mermaid Sparkla is... well, a mermaid, but she isn't hindered in the least while traversing the blatantly not-submerged theater.
• Foreshadowing: Each floor corrupted by a major Darkla monster features equipment on the ceiling that factors into its design. That the top floor lacks such warns that you're not going to be fighting Grape there.
• For the Evulz: Grape has no particular goal or motivation for her scheme other than to just create tragedies that ruin all of the fun and happiness in the world.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: Alluded to during Cowgirl Peach's transformation scene when she lassos some bottles of tomato ketchup which are obvious stand-ins for bottles of alcohol. Cowboy Sparkla also offers to treat her to a glass of milk when she saves him from a Darkle-powered train.
• Gag Nose: The Theets are the local civilians with giant endearing noses like Wigglers, which the trailers and demo show that they change colour and glow depending on their emotions, such as blue for sadness or being upset.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The Sour Bunch are still around in the plays, even after Grape was ousted from the theater. This is never explained.
• Ghost Ship: Act 2 of the Mermaid play has you chasing down one (resembling an enormous, monstrous shark) as it has abducted the other mermaids.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Mighty Peach mainly makes use of powerful energy-enhanced punches.
• Goomba Stomp:
  • Even though Peach can jump, this is averted and she takes damage when jumping on enemies. It's the first and main indication to the player that this is not a "Mario" game, but rather a whole new universe and spinoff starring Peach, and the player has to make use of her ribbon powers to defeat enemies.
  • Dodging an enemy attack as Swordfighter Peach may cause her to jump on the enemy's head, dazing them and lowering their defenses against her blade. You have to press [A] just as an attack's about to hit you to pull this off, though.
• Graceful Loser: The Pâtissièr Darkla is shown to be this after he lost to Pâtissière Peach and the Pâtissière Sparkla, but only after trying one of their Sparkle cookies for himself. The Figure Skater Darkla also declares how beautiful Peach and her troupe are before disappearing, even after Peach has broken his control over the Figure Skater Sparkla's imprisonment.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Dashing Thief Peach is shown using a grappling hook to catch objects and swing over pits and obstacles. It also doubles as a taser to short out guard robots and make machines malfunction to open the way forward.
• Heart Container: You can speak to the Staff Member Theet in the lobby to get a Heart Charm, which adds three additional hearts to Peach's Life Meter (Stella can also give it to you if the player fails twice at a play), expanding from five to eight. Speaking to the Staff Member can have her return it, going back to five hearts.
• Hearts Are Health: Peach is given a set of five hearts to use (players may optionally use a charm to get eight), and can restore it by gathering hearts through performing actions or finding them in spots. Heart pickups grant ten coins if Peach grabs them while at full health.
• Heart Symbol: In the trailer, Princess Peach's transformation into Pâtissière Peach is surrounded by pink hearts.
• Haunted Castle: The second and third Swordfighter acts take place in a castle taken over by a hostile ghost knight.
• Heel: In the game, the Sour Bunch play the role of designated bad guys/antagonists in each of the plays. However, they're actively malicious as opposed to being actors merely playing antagonists, causing harm to the Theets and the theater itself.
• Henshin Hero: Peach becomes one in this game, using Sparkle energy from the theater to change into forms based on theater roles that enable her to take on different abilities.
• History Repeats: Peach's merciful and unassuming nature works against her again. After defeating Grape's first form, Peach and Stella think they have won, but Grape reveals she isn't finished yet and pulls a Victory Fakeout. Perhaps Bowser had a point in that Peach had quite a bit to learn...
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Grape continues to let Peach succeed, intending to let the Theets' hope build so that the tragedy that comes from her victory will hit all the harder. Too bad she's in a world where emotions can be weaponized - something Peach has done before - and the Theets' hopes right at the final hour empower Peach to be able to defeat Grape once and for all.
• Hope Bringer: In each initial act of the play, Peach will often need to use Sparkle to motivate despairing Theets to try fixing whatever the Sour Bunch ruined. Obtaining each Sparkle to assume the lead role only brings more hope by allowing her to solve the various conflicts of the plays. Turns out this aspect of Peach's actions is why Grape let her run around unchecked—so she could crush that building hope for an even better tragedy.
• Hope Crusher: Grape enjoys tragedies and aspires to crush hopes and dreams. She praises Peach for making it to her lair, just to see the hopes the Theets have in her dashed the hardest in her victory. She even acknowledges their contrasting roles before beginning the battle.
• Hub Level: The Sparkle Theater's lobby functions as this, allowing to access the different plays from there and the in-game shop.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: As Swordfighter Peach, Peach can fence with both speed and agility. Some attacks need her to dodge and counter-attack first, however.
• Important Hair Accessory: In the trailer, Stella turns Peach's usual long hairstyle into her ribbon-ponytail in order to make use of her new ribbon powers as well as transform into her different forms.
• Impossibly Delicious Food: Pâtissière Peach's sweets are so delicious that they can free mind-controlled Theets, possibly because the sweetness nullifies the Sour Bunch's influence. The possessed Pâtissière Sparkla is also freed from the Darkle controlling her by tasting Peach's cake in a rage. And a Sparkle cookie made by both of them purifies the Pâtissièr Darkla, his body dispersing into light even as he decrees it delicious.
• Innocuously Important Episode: The first two Detective Peach levels actually have some very important moments in them that become relevant in the Sparkla level.
  • In the first play, the Junior Detective rearranged the brown cushions on the couch to conceal himself to warm up the Ace Detective's brain (Peach in this case). The Junior in the Sparkla prison doesn't contest the statement that there are no cushions, and suggests that he'd get purple ones, giving up the game almost instantly.
  • In the second, an offhand remark by Junior Detective mentions he likes to arrive five minutes early. Which makes it clear the Junior in the Sparkla level is an imposter when he answers that he arrives exactly on time.
• An Interior Designer Is You: After completing the game, the player can use their remaining Sparkle Gems to buy accessories from the shop to decorate the floors of the Sparkle Theater.
• Interface Spoiler: The ensemble menu shows all the transformations in the game (Including regular Peach), but by the time you unlock all ten, there is still an empty space. Peach gets Radiant Peach as All Your Powers Combined for the final level. The menu hides the slot for Super Radiant Peach that appears as 11th-Hour Superpower later.
• Just Like Robin Hood: The Dashing Thief doesn't so much steal things as she does steal things back from the Sour Bunch. She's considered more of a secret agent infiltrator than an actual thief.
• Kick Chick: As Kung Fu Peach, her martial attacks are all kicks and she only does punches in cutscenes against the Kung Fu Darkla.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Princess Peach wears a traditional pink dress, and several of her costumes ooze elegance. Figure Skater peach wears a light blue dress (with matching high heel pumps that are equipped with skate-blades), and Swordfighter Peach wears a tri-corn feathered hat and blue suit that wouldn't look out of place were she about to have a swashbuckling duel.
• Knows the Ropes: Cowgirl Peach has no gun despite her holster; instead, she wrangles her enemies with a lasso.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: If Peach ever runs out of hearts, she gives up and the player has to start over again.
• Lady of War: Swordfighter Peach's attacks are extremely graceful and delicate, and she flips and pirouettes on command. But they are no less deadly to the Sour Bunch.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: If Peach ever runs out of hearts and loses, the normally upbeat background music conks out and slows down to a low, slowed fade out.
• Light 'em Up: Peach's "Sparkle" magic is light-themed, opposed by Grape's darkness-themed "Darkle" magic.
• Light Is Not Good: All four of the Darkle bosses are based on objects that emit (or in one case, reflect) light: Disco Wing is a disco ball, Light Fang is a bank of stage lights, Purrjector Cat is a film projector, and Spotlion is a spotlight.
• Loads and Loads of Loading: Rehearsals and boss battles can take up to a full minute to load, and there's quite a long wait going up and down stairs as well, which can quickly add up going to and from the basement before you've unlocked the elevator. In the third Figure Skater play, getting hit will boot you to a loading screen, even if you have health remaining.
• Macguffin: Sparkle Gems. Peach gains them from doing special tasks during each play (she can get these before transforming. Some of them are always gained and some require optional tasks). Stella takes them to fight the boss monsters on each floor. It's never really explained what they are. There is also the transformation ball of light, which is the essence of an actor's role within the show. These are always obtained upon the first show for a form, whereas any others will start with the transformation.
• Magical Girl: Peach herself. Before getting any transformations, Peach can use "Sparkle" magic to help people, brighten things and even take on the main bosses except the final one. As Radiant Peach, she can fly and fire magical blasts of light. It helps that Peach is established to have magical powers in several earlier games.
• Magic Music: In her Mermaid form, Peach's magical singing can control schools of fish to do her bidding for various purposes and she can also harmonize with an aquatic orchestra for even greater effects. Singing a duet with the Mermaid Sparkla quells five massive whirlpools blocking the exit of her prison.
• Malevolent Mugshot: Grape has her own brand insignia consisting of her face that appears on front of the boss doors as well as replacing the symbol in front of the Sparkle Theater.
• Master of Threads: Shown in the trailer. In her normal appearance, Peach can use a magical ribbon to attack enemies, and also allows her to transform into different costumes, which give her different powers and abilities.
• Meaningful Name: The Big Bad Grape sounds similar to the word "gripe", which is another term for complaining. It ties into the theming of the Sour Bunch, the antagonists of this game. There is also the pun associated with the phrase Sour Grapes. And, of course, a grape is a fruit, just like a peach.
• Medieval European Fantasy: Swordfighter-1 (Castle of Thorns) fittingly takes place in a Medieval Fantasy themed setting with some of the Theets dressed as knights. Peach explores a village on their way to the castle in order to rescue the King. Never mind that Swordfighter is wearing and using Renaissance era gear...
• Mercy Mode: Peach can equip a Heart Charm offered by one of the Theets in the main lobby that increases her max HP from 5 to 8. Stella will also give you the option to use it if you fail the same section of a level twice. And if that isn't enough to get you through the section and you manage to fail a few more times, the game will pity you and gave the option of completely skipping the level.
• Mermanity Ensues: Peach can transform into a mermaid, allowing for underwater-themed levels that utilize singing to progress.
• Morphic Resonance: Downplayed since it's not shapeshifting but costume changing. Each of Peach's different costumes will always retain Peach's blue brooch she usually wears on her chest.
  • Swordfighter Peach: On her cravat close to where she normally wears it.
  • Ninja Peach: On a gold cord wrapped around her waist.
  • Cowgirl Peach: A pin for the bandana she wears around her neck.
  • Pâtissière Peach: Upper left button on her buttoned blouse.
  • Dashing Thief Peach: Pinned to her coat's right lapel.
  • Figure Skater Peach: On the neckline of the dress close to where she wears it on her normal dress.
  • Detective Peach: On her shirt just above the collar of her uniform.
  • Mighty Peach is the only aversion; hers is not seen on her usual model. The Mario Wiki claims it's visible on her wrists when using super strength.
  • Mermaid Peach: The gemstone of a pearl necklace.
  • Kung Fu Peach: Hanging from the stick used to hold her braid in place.
• Mundane Made Awesome: The first two Ninja levels offer this as their finales. In each one, Peach obtains a special scroll that gives her an awesome power. The first one has her turn a boulder into a conduit that makes it act like a giant wave that she can ride. The second allows her to turn a large gear set into a dragon that she rides up to the top of the castle. In both instances, everything in her way is summarily destroyed.
• Mythology Gag: Princess Peach Showtime! has some nods to other games in the franchise, most notably Super Princess Peach:
  • The Theets' noses change colors to depending on their emotions — red for anger, yellow for joy, and blue for sadness—Not unlike that of the Rage, Joy, and Gloom Vibes. In the finale, their noses turn a bluish-green when providing the strength for Peach to transform again—while this color is reserved for Sparkle power, it may also allude to the Calm Vibe and its restoring/healing properties.
  • Peach's sidekick is again a bright-yellow colored creature who accompanies her on her adventure. Bonus points in that Perry and Stella give Peach powers and abilities to defend herself.
  • Grape pulls a Victory Fakeout on Peach and transforms into a gigantic form for the final battle, much like Bowser did previously. Also like before, Grape's transformation destroys the battle arena. Much like Bowser's final form, Grape's weak spot is her eyes/face that Peach must attack.
  • Peach delivers one final blow to Grape after defeating her, like she did to Bowser after defeating him.
  • Peach's adventure again takes place on an island away from the Mushroom Kingdom; the Sparkle Theater is stationed on an lone island, not unlike that of Vibe Island.
  • Peach battles a bird boss who attacks with eggs and has Weaponized Offspring, much like Hoo.
  • After the end of the game, the Ninja Sparkla introduces the Hide And Seek Challenge, where Peach has to go back through prior plays to find three hidden Theets - the Sparkla prisons have one hidden Theet each. In Super Princess Peach, Peach had to find and rescue three Toads in the levels, and the remixed levels have three puzzle pieces substitute for the Toads.
  • The prologue in the lobby before Grape appears plays a lot like that of Luigi's Mansion 3, except the player is controlling Peach instead of Luigi. She even brought one of her pink suitcases as seen in that game, but this time she avoids Lots of Luggage. The opening movie is similar too, with Peach receiving a flyer for the Sparkle theater just like Luigi got one for the Last Resort hotel. The difference here, of course, is that the theatre isn't usually a scam; it just happened to get attacked when Peach visited.
• Ninja: This is one of the transformations Peach can use, literally named as such.
• Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: There are some spots where Peach can (literally) fall off the stage, costing her one of her hearts if she does so.
• Non-Lethal K.O.:
  • Attacking with the ribbon will Depower Sour Bunch minions and force them to retreat.
  • Likewise, if Peach loses all of her hearts, she loses and has to start over from a previous checkpoint.
• One-Winged Angel: Once Grape is defeated for the first time, she assumes a much bigger form named Grape the Great, who ended up destroying the entire Sparkle Theater, leaving it in rubble.
• Perfect Disguise, Terrible Acting: The two crooks in the first act of the Detective play hide fairly well among the museum with magical disguise masks—clues that track them aside. But all the "Theets" in Detective Sparkla's prison either try to deliberately hinder Peach, blatantly lie to her, get key information wrong or sing the praises of the Sour Bunch and/or Grape herself, making it easy to tell that they're not real Theets.
• Perverse Puppet: The Darkle bosses and minibosses have glowing purple marionette strings and visibly jointed limbs, Grape herself being the obvious exception. Their bodies fall apart when defeated or vulnerable, showing their true forms as globs of darkness inside constructed bodies (made out of theater equipment in the main bosses' case, where their masks detach in a similar manner to Grape).
• Phantom Thief: The premise of Dashing Thief Peach. She's shown in the trailer hacking a computer, sneaking alongside the outside of a building and utilizing a grappling hook to swing over obstacles. She even uses a hang glider in the first and third plays.
• Pivotal Boss: During her first phase, Grape floats in the center of a ring-shaped platform.
• Platform-Activated Ability: As hinted in the game's reveal teaser and then shown in the first proper trailer, Peach gains a special costume transformation when she stands on a circular stand with a glowing point of light, not only changing her current attire but also gaining moves based on the costume in question. Transformations include a swordfighter, a detective, a pâtissière, and a martial artist. Later trailers revealed that she can also be a ninja, cowgirl, figure skater, Phantom Thief, mermaid, and a space-themed superhero. There are several others hidden platforms within the game as well, leading to optional areas for Coins or Sparkle Gems.
• Player Death Is Dramatic: Downplayed. When Peach loses, she and Stella just dejectedly sit on the floor underneath a spotlight, and the player has to start over again from a previous checkpoint. In rehearsal, the player's run ends immediately.
• Plot Tailored to the Party: The threats of every level are tailored to the costume that Peach acquires or uses in that level - nobody ever asks for cookies in a ninja level, requires detective work in a superhero level, or asks for singing in a swashbuckler level. Justified by the fact that each level represents a play in which a Sparkla representing that costume was supposed to be playing a key role, and the Sour Bunch is working with the material they had on hand.
• Police Are Useless: Downplayed. In the Detective plays, the officer Theets will often need Peach to suss out where the perpetrators are or how to move forward. But they provide clues in the first act when asked, detain and guard any discovered crooks and even mob and overpower a Sour Bunch member in a Big Ball of Violence when he blocks the way in the second act.
• Purple Is the New Black: Names of the leader and the group aside, the Darkle powering the Sour Bunch is a neon purple instead of black. Averted for Grape the Great's Darkle core, which is pitch-black with a glowing aura surrounding it.
• Puzzle Boss: Most of the battles with the Darkle Bosses play out this way. Peach has to find a way to counterattack, which almost always involves sending their attacks or projectiles back at them. Light Fang however is more of a puzzle. You have to sneak past him and hit the light switch, the layout getting more challenging and elaborate after each successful attempt.
• Red Is Heroic: The second Transformation trailer has Mighty Peach being a red armor-wearing superhero.
• Reed Snorkel: Ninja Peach uses one when she travels and hides in shallow pools of water.
• Royal Rapier: Swordfighter Peach's rapier is a thin elegant piece.
• Rule of Three: There are three levels for each transformation - two on the upper levels and one in the basement that is unlocked by defeating the first two.
• Runaway Train: The Sour Bunch use one to wreak hovoc in the second and third Cowgirl stages.
• Scarf of Asskicking: The Transformation trailer gives Ninja Peach a bright green scarf.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: To contrast the pinks of Princess Peach, Grape and her minions are purple, as the trailer shows.
• Sequel Goes Foreign: Unlike its predecessor, the only elements tying this to Mario are in the cutscenes. Peach is walking outside of her castle with a Toad, another Toad informs her of the theater, and all three go. One of the Toads handles purchasing the tickets before Grape attacks and blows both Toads outside of the theater and seals it. The Toads aren't seen again until the game is over. Neither Stella, the Theets, Grape, or the Sour Bunch had been seen in any Mario franchise before this point. To show just how foreign the Sparkle Theater is to the series, it takes until the fourth floor for someone to recognize Peach as THE Princess Peach!
• Sherlock Homage: Detective Peach from the trailer has her wearing Sherlock's iconic (but ill-attributed) leather hat and coat while carrying around a magnifying glass.
• Shout-Out: Present in the trailer:
  • Swordfighter Peach is an obvious homage to the "knightly lady" archetype created by Osamu Tezuka's Princess Knight and popularized with characters such as Oscar from The Rose of Versailles and Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena.
  • Whether on her hairstyle or uniform, Pâtissière Peach's design is homage to yellow cutie witch Momoko Asuka in Ojamajo Doremi. Besides, Momoko also means Peach in Japanese.
  • Peach switching outfits in a theater setting is very similar to the Takarazuka Revue, a famous all-women theater troupe that even inspired Princess Knight.
  • The guardian of the theater is named Stella.
• The Show Must Go On: The mission of the game and also counts at the game's tagline. The Sour Bunch is set out to ruin the plays and stories in the Sparkle Theater, and it's up to Peach to save the show.
• Shown Their Work: While most of Ninja Peach's abilities are played up for theatrical appeal, there is one bit of accuracy she has—her kunai, which she never throws but uses strictly for melee-based sneak attacks. Anyone who's seen Gaijin Goombah's Which Ninja series knows that real kunai aren't throwing daggers, but rather medium-sized masonry or digging trowels repurposed as blades. They're actually too big to consider using as a throwing weapon, even at their smallest.
• Single-Use Shield: The Heart Charm functions as this. It gives Peach three bonus hearts, but they cannot be restored. Once Peach falls to her normal five hearts, she cannot get the bonus hearts back unless she starts over.
• Sirens Are Mermaids: Mermaid Peach uses Magic Music through singing to control the sea creatures around her.
• Sizeshifter: Zig-zagged. During the second act of the Mighty play, the alien mothership expands to reveal an extra layer with fists emerging. The professor and recently rescued scientist Theets use their tech to empower Mighty Peach and make her giant. While this is portrayed by the building sets being switched out for smaller standees, Peach does wind up matching the mothership in size.
• Slice-and-Dice Swordsmanship: Justified. Swordfighter Peach wields a rapier as a slashing weapon because it's a theater production (albeit one that's been taken over by a real villain). Similarly, Ninja Peach's kunai, while accurately used as a melee weapon, are used for slashing despite being incredibly poorly designed for such. Not only are such actions with these weapons more visually impressive to the audience, but it also presumably reduces on-stage accidents during normal plays (and since Peach is effectively borrowing the skills of the Sparklas, of course she'd inherit that bit of etiquette as well, despite all but the most basic minions being Darkle-empowered props).
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The main theme of the game. Peach is the idealistic heroine who uses Sparkle Magic which raises the spirit of others and give the plays a happier ending. Grape and her minions are the cynical antagonists who use the evil Darkle Magic and aspire to create tragic plays.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Light Fang is a green snake boss who has the ability to rewind time upon dealing damage to Peach.
• Something about a Rose: In the trailer, Swordfighter Peach is surrounded by rose petals, and a red rose is tucked in her hat.
• Something Only They Would Say: The Sour Bunch only refer to Grape as "Madame Grape". This bites them in the rear several times when they possess or impersonate Theets, as it tips Peach and Stella off that something is amiss. It's also the clincher for exposing the fake Junior Detective when the Detective Sparkla asks his assistant's opinion on Grape. Unlike the others, he catches it after saying her title and tries to say they can't waste time, but the player has likely caught on by then.
• Sore Loser: The Pâtissièr Darkla promises to let Peach and the Sparkla out if they win one last bake-off against him, but throws a fit when they do, claiming that taste is what's most important. Ironically, his cookies are too plain, implying he doesn't understand cooking that much either. Though the curtain opens after he disintegrates from eating a Sparkle-imbued cookie, proclaiming it delicious as he's purified.
• Speed Echoes: Swordfighter Peach can do an acrobatic jump that leaves blue afterimages of her behind in order to position herself better and defeat certain enemies. Press A just before getting hit to trigger this ability.
• Spin-Off: Showtime! keeps any elements tying it to the greater Mario franchise to a minimum outside of Peach herself, two Toads (who are quickly removed from the plot), and her castle briefly appearing in the opening. Compared to its predecessor which had Peach in the starring role but kept many familiar characters, the setting, characters, and enemies are completely new and unique.
• Stealth Pun:
  • As indicated by the trailer, Peach is starring in her own game once again, this time revolving around a theater play. She's literally having A Day in the Limelight.
  • In the trailer, Princess Peach is aided by the star-shaped guardian Stella. She becomes the leading lady, or the star of the show.
  • The trailer reveals that the baddies in the game are the witch Grape and the Sour Bunch. Would that make them The Grapes of Wrath?
  • Peach gets a Super Mode in the form of Radiant and later Super Radiant Peach, becoming literally Super Princess Peach.
• Studiopolis: The game takes place entirely in a closed off theatre, with Peach performing on different stages and putting on costumes for each. There's also access to the backstage areas, depending on the level; for example, Patisserie Peach can go backstage in the first level to assist four hungry Theets.
• Superman Substitute: Mighty Peach is a futuristic super hero with the ability to fly and punch enemies with Super-Strength.
• Super Mode: Before the showdown with Grape, Peach is empowered by all the Sparklas, gaining a new powerful transformation into Radiant Peach, gaining a shiny crown on her head, growing her hair longer and adorning her with a long white and cyan gown, then that Super Mode gets another with Super Radiant Peach, which she transforms into to fight Grape the Great.
• Super-Strength:
  • Mighty Peach has incredible strength that she can use to lift large structures to use to throw at foes or to save victims.
  • Kung Fu Peach is no slouch either, using her kicks to send enemies and furniture flying, reduce reinforced doors to splinters and huge boulders to dust.
• Swashbuckler: Swordfighter Peach has a very distinct swashbuckler motif, between her Royal Rapier, cravat, tilted cavalier hat, and rose adornments.
• Sweet Baker: Pâtissière Peach is an adorable baker who helps make desserts. Helps that Peach is already known for baking cakes.
• Tailor-Made Prison: A few of the Sparklas' prisons in the basement operate as this.
  • Dashing Thief Sparkla is held captive in a vault-like prison and a high-tech cell powered by a central lock protected by four other locks in the corners of the facility that keeps him suspended in midair to prevent any attempted hacking or escape artistry. He can still notice Peach's entry and talk, though.
  • Downplayed with Detective Sparkla, who is kept in a copy of the museum from his play with obstacles meant to flummox any attempts to deduce a way out. It's filled with fake Theets that always give false clues, hidden passages triggered by somewhat cryptic puzzles, three imposters of himself imprisoned alongside him, a looping pair of rooms with only one hidden exit, and a fake Junior Detective that will attempt to trick you into a false exit.
  • Mighty Sparkla is apparently kept in stasis, the pod housing him protected by multiple force fields that the Professor Theet needs to disengage while Mighty Peach protects him. Once they're undone and the capsule hits the ground, it shatters with one punch from Mighty Peach and frees the captive hero.
• Tennis Boss: Inverted with the Mermaid Sparkla, a Tennis Ally who you bounce fish back and forth with in order to stop the whirlpools blocking the exit.
• That's All, Folks!: After Grape is defeated, Peach, Stella, the Sparklas and the rest of the Theets stand in front of the rebuilt Sparkle Theater and wave at the camera, and the credits roll.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: The Theets are hard to determine the gender of aside from clothes, but a closer look during particular scenes reveals that – at least – the Patissiere, Mermaid and Figure Skater Sparklas have a single pronounced eyelash above each eye.
• Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack: Many of the stage themes are variants on the same music piece depending on the stage- i.e. a western style, a ninja style, a thief style, etc.
• Title Drop: Peach sometimes says "Showtime!" before starting an act, and "Peach time!" when starting an act as herself. She even calls out "Showtime!" when restoring the Sparkle Theater in the ending.
• Traintop Battle: Happens in the second and third Cowgirl stages.
• Transformation Sequence: Each first play has a scene where Peach gains a Sparkla and transforms into her form. In the second and third plays, she will start in that form. Fighting Grape gives a transformation into Radiant Peach, and fighting Grape the Great turns her into Super Radiant Peach.
• Transformation Trinket: According to the Nintendo Direct trailer, Stella's ribbon is the key to Peach's transformations. In the game itself, while Stella does assist with the process, it is actually the Sparkla that causes Peach to transform.
• True Blue Femininity: Swordfighter Peach wears a dark blue longcoat, while Figure Skater Peach wears an icy blue dress.
• Victory Fakeout: After Radiant Peach delivers the finishing blow to Grape, it seems that she and Stella won the battle, with Grape reduced to nothing more than a mask. Sure enough, Grape gets back up for round 2, taking on a new form named Grape the Great and destroying the entire Sparkle Theater. With the help of all the Theets and Sparklas, Peach takes on a brand new form dubbed Super Radiant Peach and goes up against Grape once more. The cutscene's title indirectly references it, with it being titled: "Victory! Or is it?".
• Video Game Flight: Mighty Peach can fly using a jet-pack.
• Vocal Evolution: Sharp-eared players will notice that Samantha Kelly alters her voice for Peach in a variety of tones. Swordfighter, Ninja, Dashing Thief, Mighty, Detective, and Kung Fu Peach tend to have deeper tones, whereas her non-transformed state, Figure Skater, Mermaid, Pâtissière, and Radiant Peach have her normal higher tone. Cowgirl Peach affects a Southern drawl.
• Wall Jump: Ninja Peach is well versed in wall jumps.
• Water Is Womanly: The Mermaid Sparkla is female and has a beautiful singing voice, to say nothing about Mermaid Peach herself, who is already exceptionally graceful.
• Weaponized Offspring: During the battle with Disco Wing, her eggs will occasionally hatch little birds who will attack/distract the player.
• Wicked Witch: Grape's motif in the trailer gives off this motif. She wears a classic wide-brimmed hat and dress, as well as a face-covering mask. She covers the Swordfighter stages in papercraft thorned vines and uses The Dark Arts to seize control of the Sparkle Theater.
• The Wild West: Fittingly for the Cowgirl Peach plays, they take place in a setting based on the American West. The Sour Bunch are a gang of bandits who terrorize the town, and its up to Cowgirl Peach to stop them.
• World-Healing Wave: After taking down Grape for good, Super Radiant Peach magically rebuilds the Sparkle Theater.

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"Thank you very much!"