Nintendo has finally decided to give us more information on the standalone Princess Peach game that it revealing earlier this year, announcing a confirmed title as well as an official release date during the latest Nintendo Direct. During the show, it was revealed that the game is called Princess Peach: Showtime! and will be launching next year on March 22.
Just like the title suggests, Princess Peach's Showtime! will feature Peach as the star in her first standalone console title. She's been a playable character in a whole bunch of spinoff games such as Mario Kart and the many sports titles, but this is the first game in which she's been the star of the show since Super Princess Peach on the Nintendo DS back in 2006. Nintendo gave us another look at the game in a short trailer during the Direct, which you can view down below.
The trailer included a whole bunch of details, including a breakdown of the story as well as some gameplay footage. In Princess Peach: Showtime!, you'll take to the stage with Peach and a theatre guardian called Stella to save a play from an evil entity called The Wicked Grape and their army known as the Sour Bunch. Very cute stuff, and it has that lovely Mario charm.
What makes Princess Peach: Showtime! a little more interesting though is Peach's ability to change into different costumes. These costumes completely transform Peach into different roles, with different abilities dependent on which costumes she has equipped. For example, Peach can take on enemies more stylishly with showstopping techniques, while her Detective costume will allow you to sniff out clues to recover stolen items.
While not confirmed, it appears as though each costume is attached to a certain stolen play, and you'll need to take on a variety of roles to help save them. Alongside the Detective and Swordfighter costumes, we also got to see a Patissiere costume that allows Peach to bake cakes, and a Kung-Fu costume that allows her to become adept in martial arts. The trailer also teases more costumes in additon to these as well, so Princess Peach: Showtime will be a varied experience at the very least.
On top of that, Nintendo also had a couple more Mario-related announcements to make during its latest Direct. Not only did we see the announcement of a Mario vs. Donkey Kong remake, but it was revealed that Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door is also finally getting a remake having been locked away on the GameCube for the past 20 years. It's about time Nintendo!