Metareview: Super Princess Peach (DS)

Source - Joystiq

Super Princess Peach marks a big plot reversal for the world of Super Mario Bros. Bowser, in his infinite wisdom, has kidnapped Mario, leaving Princess Peach little choice other than to fight her way through scores of Bowser's minions in an attempt to free the red-clothed plumber. Key differences in gameplay from previous Mario platformers include emotional superpowers (obviously feeding off the stereotype that women can be more emotional than men), an umbrella used as a weapon (Peach isn't heavy enough to kill enemies by jumping on them) with a bunch of mini-games along the way.

Planet Gamecube (80/100) by Unknown - this review gives the impression that Super Princess Peach is a quality Nintendo platformer, but one that's a little on the easy side. In fact "the easiness is really the only thing that should dissuade a purchase, but it's not so easy it's terrible". According to the self-described "hardcore Mario fan" reviewer, the game doesn't reward skilled players as much as he/she would like, but we're pretty sure the majority of players won't care about this.

IGN (78/100) by Craig Harris - again, a feeling that the game is too easy is the reviewer's main criticism of the game. For example "Nintendo goes completely out of its way to spoon-feed the player, going so far as to nearly spell out the solution to every boss battle before the player enters the fight." We'd imagine that would get annoying, fast.

Gamespot (72/100) by Ryan Davis - this review brings up something that was at the back of my mind since the mentioning of "emotional superpowers". "There's something rather sexist about the idea that Princess Peach's big secret weapon is that she can get really overly emotional at the drop of a hat" (emphasis added). We've got to ask our female audience; what do you feel about this feature? The review concludes on the note that Super Princess Peach is a great introduction for rookies to the world of 2D platformers, but if you're looking for the next Super Mario Bros. you better wait until Mario Bros DS is released.