Reviews Princess Peach: Showtime! | Review Thread

[Beanstar40]

I'm always perplexed by the Crafted World hate. I really liked that game.

Its got great art, but the levels tend to go on just a bit too long, and there are a lot of collectibles you can only try to get once per level via a mini game, and if you fail you need to replay the whole level to try it again. It was the game that broke me as completionist

 

[Lugia667]

Judging by user score on metacritic we may have a pretty big fan critic divide

May be a sign of good wom?

 

[Kartina]

I’ve only heard positive things for this game after the release, the wom seems to be extremely positive and it’s making me want to buy the game even if I’m not a fan of the recent good feel games. It looks like a pretty great game and maybe the beginning of a new franchise, at least I hope so. Take away yoshi from good feel and let them work on peach games for a while.

 

[Brock Reiher]

from what I've seen people are saying it's surprisingly fun to play but post game/trying to 100% is awful. sounds right for a good feel game.

 

[Stopdoor]

Judging by user score on metacritic we may have a pretty big fan critic divide

May be a sign of good wom?

I kind of get the impression that it's simply a good game for its niche, anyone not hung up on difficulty being a required aspect of games. Anyone actually buying the game is probably already self-selecting for that - the new Peach theme means there's less long-time fans with prejudice coming in and being disappointed it's easier than whatever previous game, like Mario games.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

I'm always perplexed by the Crafted World hate. I really liked that game.

Crafted world's biggest failing is it being a follow up to Wooly world, which has a more consistent and arguably nicer art style, more consistent level quality, and less frustrating collectibles. Those together make it come off as worse than it otherwise perhaps would have in isolation

 

[Hailinel]

I kind of get the impression that it's simply a good game for its niche, anyone not hung up on difficulty being a required aspect of games. Anyone actually buying the game is probably already self-selecting for that - the new Peach theme means there's less long-time fans with prejudice coming in and being disappointed it's easier than whatever previous game, like Mario games.

Also just the fact that the audience for Showtime is in general not the sort of audience that posts on sites like Famiboards.

 

[Stopdoor]

Also just the fact that the audience for Showtime is in general not the sort of audience that posts on sites like Famiboards.

Well, I think what's interesting is that anyone who's playing the game on here is satisfied with it, rather than no one here being interested in it at all. Amiibo Festival was for "a different audience", but that was just bad. it's been said 100 times but this is still a site that likes Kirby games and whatever, the bridge isn't that far that I think it's all that notable.

What is very indicative of the audience here is it would be nice to hear less of "I love going on message boards and complaining opining about games I’ve never played!" lol

 

[Marce-chan]

8.1 user score on Metacritic is... Pretty great?? Even some critically acclaimed games struggle to get there. I think WoM for the game will be super positive, and I'm curious about how much it'll sell.

Anyways I'm very interested in the DF tech analysis.

 

[Tye]

Amiibo Festival was for "a different audience", but that was just bad.

Honestly, amiibo Festival wasn’t even bad for what it was, either. My friends and I had a bunch of fun with it. It’s a nice, chill Animal Crossing board game experience that can be a lot of fun with friends if you’re not expecting something else out of it.

 

[Stopdoor]

Honestly, amiibo Festival wasn’t even bad for what it was, either. My friends and I had a bunch of fun with it. It’s a nice, chill Animal Crossing board game experience that can be a lot of fun with friends if you’re not expecting something else out of it.

Yeah fair enough, I don't actually hate it because I'm pretty into party games, but I think it definitely is in an indisputably "lower tier". The potential of it didn't feel realized like this Princess Peach game

 

[buildz]

I think the idea was probably that it would relate to the heavy background interaction the game has, so you would constantly be flipping perspectives to look all around you for secrets or things you needed to progress, like the pieces of the bridge you build to reunite the rhinos in the jungle level. At some point they probably realized that it was disorienting test players, wasn't actually any fun, and in general an idea that seems like it would have come out of the early 90's as a bizarre workaround to be able to boast that your game was "3D". They probably dropped it crazy late in development though, isn't the entire flip side of each level still in the game as a sort of mirror mode replay thing where you hunt for the Poochy Pups?

What you're saying pretty much goes back to my assertion that the mechanic is just a "camera trick"; there's only so much you can do (outside of stage-specific gimmicks) with the idea of "the camera moves 180 degrees". The charm of seeing how stages are constructed wouldn't carry an entire game when it seems the majority of the time you'd be flipping the camera to either find things or reveal the way forward (e.g., if the front of the stage was obscured). I can see it being disorienting particularly as stages don't always move from left-to-right, and if I remember correctly it was triggered by ground pounding; that seems annoying in hindsight.

Thankfully the background interaction you mention did stay in the final game - with stages like the pirate cove one (a little before the Burt the Ball fight) making much better use of it than much of what was shown at E3 2017.

And yes, you're correct, the "flip side" was - I suspect rather hastily - reworked into the bonus Poochy Pup mode you mentioned.

The soundtrack being the way it is was IIRC mostly a result of them moving offices and not continuing to work with their previous composer, who didn't move with them. I wouldn't necessarily say the shuffling of content made much of a difference there in the end, because despite the massive variety of different settings, the game has fewer level themes than a New Super Mario Bros. game. It doesn't seem like they cared about making sure the music closely matched the level to begin with (or its quality in general, for that matter), so I'd be surprised if they threw much if anything out during development (and baffled, because they needed every scrap of music they could get). It's a thing that happens, I think both Retro DKC games had the music continually tweaked throughout development as the levels evolved, and you can still hear some earlier versions in Tropical Freeze prerelease footage. I just doubt it was the case for Crafted World because it really doesn't seem like they cared in the first place.

I was aware that Good Feel moved offices, but I didn't realise some office drama was the true reason behind Crafted World having an awful OST.

 

[Chie]

I'm always perplexed by the Crafted World hate. I really liked that game.

Perplexes me too. It was a solid platformer with a lot to do and I loved the arts and crafts theme.

 

[Mekanos]

It's funny to me that this thread has more posts than the actual ST

 

[Stopdoor]

It's funny to me that this thread has more posts than the actual ST

(in jest, I know it's not all critique)

(this image only becomes more evergreen lol)

 

[Evil Lucario]

(in jest, I know it's not all critique)

(this image only becomes more evergreen lol)

 

[TheQuietone]

Game was delivered a day earlier than it was slated to be delivered. Game deserves better than the 75 average.

 

[VintoWin]

Toxic positivity is also a thing. Just as much as toxic negativity. Let people have opinions.

 

[Ab]

Toxic positivity is also a thing. Just as much as toxic negativity. Let people have opinions.

True, as long as the "negative" opinions mostly understand the game wasn't made with them in mind. Although there could also be other gripes with the game that are core issues.

 

[beej]

Game was delivered a day earlier than it was slated to be delivered. Game deserves better than the 75 average.

The reviews are positive. the biggest reason why this didn't get 80 is the performance issues

 

[TheQuietone]

The reviews are positive. the biggest reason why this didn't get 80 is the performance issues

I must be blind then because I haven't seen any performance issues. Is it all in handheld mode?

 

[Yamanoi]

Also just the fact that the audience for Showtime is in general not the sort of audience that posts on sites like Famiboards.

True but also some posters definitely act like they belong in that age group.

 

[Tailzo]

Good scores all around

 

[Stopdoor]

Toxic positivity is also a thing. Just as much as toxic negativity. Let people have opinions.

I mean fair enough, I guess I personally just find review threads frustrating because it's so fixated on literally discussing the game before you've played it, feels a bit much to call dislike of that prejudice "toxic positivity". The discourse being all about who the audience is is super boring compared to talk in the OT on its actual merits and issues. But of course, yeah, I'm absolutely feeding into it by posting here and meta-discussing it, I'm no better should just mute the thread

 

[Djehuty]

I'm always perplexed by the Crafted World hate. I really liked that game.

when the predecessors is so great a good follow up looks average and an average follow up looks bad.

the chrono cross problem

 

[Lucifer]

I'm always perplexed by the Crafted World hate. I really liked that game.

I finished the main story and found it to be extremely boring and the soundtrack is horrid.

 

[Stopdoor]

I finished the main story and found it to be extremely boring and the soundtrack is horrid.

well, no one will disagree with you on the latter