Princess Peach: Showtime’s Greatest Challenge Might Be Its Secrets

It’s clear that Princess Peach: Showtime was designed with casual audiences in mind, given its developer Good Feel’s history of producing charming titles that are accessible to all audiences. Despite the core gameplay of Princess Peach: Showtime following a somewhat simplistic formula, the game’s optional content provides a solid challenge that more seasoned fans of the Mario franchise shouldn’t skip out on. Within the game’s collectathon elements hide what may be its greatest challenges, requiring players to uncover the game’s secrets to unlock everything Princess Peach: Showtime has to offer.

Like the core Mario series titles, Princess Peach: Showtime is full of collectibles that are hidden throughout its stages for players to discover. Finding these collectibles not only helps the player progress through the main campaign but also allows them to unlock bonus cosmetics and special content, meaning they are worth the trouble for players to hunt. However, the game does a great job of making the search for all the collectibles hidden within every stage one of Princess Peach: Showtime‘s more challenging elements, utilizing clever level designs and secret Pose Spotlight locations to force players to keep an eye out if they wish to discover every collectible.

Princess Peach: Showtime’s Collectathon Aspects Can Be Deceptively Tricky

Players looking to challenge themselves to unlock everything Princess Peach: Showtime has to offer will need to keep their eyes open for the many collectibles hidden throughout the game’s stages. There are several types of collectibles players should be on the lookout for, including coins, Sparkle Gems, and ribbons obtained by finding the Ribboner in each level. Sparkle Gems are necessary for progressing to the boss stage of each floor of Sparkle Theater, but coins and ribbons allow players to unlock and purchase cosmetics for Peach and her companion, Stella.

Finding these collectibles will often require players to interact with a level’s environment in unique ways, usually by utilizing Peach’s specific transformation for that level. For example, Detective Peach will sometimes need to use her Strike of Inspiration ability to get a treasure chest to open and make coins appear, or Mermaid Peach will need to use her magical voice to have fish open a clam and discover the treasure it’s hiding. However, one of the game’s most devious spots for hiding secrets is beneath Pose Spotlights, forcing players to keep a close eye out for unusual lighting or changes to the stage’s flooring in order to find them.

How Princess Peach: Showtime’s Pose Spotlights Showcase Its Best Challenges

Out of all the optional challenges in Princess Peach: Showtime, finding all the Pose Spotlight locations and claiming the rewards they hide might be the most difficult. These locations are special spots in stages where players can stand and press the ZR button to have Peach perform a pose and unlock access to a bonus area. Within these bonus areas are collectibles like coins and Sparkle Gems that players will need to collect if they plan to 100% the game, making finding a Pose Spotlights a requirement for completionists.

What makes these secrets so hard to find is the way they blend in with the rest of the stage. Most of these Pose Spotlight locations are only noticeable by the spotlight highlighting the area where players need to stand and pose, which can be quite hard to see among the rest of the stage’s general lighting that is designed to give it the look of a play. Eagle-eyed players can find these Pose Spotlights by the odd stage lighting or slightly different patterns on the floor, proving that there is a far greater challenge to Princess Peach: Showtime than simply completing all the game’s stages.

Princess Peach: Showtime!

Released

March 22, 2024

Developer(s)

Nintendo

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Genre(s)

Action-Adventure