So how would you personally rate this game out of 10? I agree that the game has flaws, but personally I give it a 7/10 as I still thought it was a good game and really enjoyed it and thought it was at least better than Super Princess Peach.
I actually don\'t like giving X/10 type ratings, because I feel like that\'s limiting, boiling something down to just a number rather than the nuance of \"it\'s good in this way, bad in this way, and how much different people care will depend on the person.\" So I avoid doing that.
I do think it was better than Super Princess Peach, which I was disappointed by, as that Tose-developed game felt amateurish to me and not as good as a regular Mario platformer. This game is more original with its gameplay, and while a bit lacking in depth and polish, at least succeeds more at what it\'s trying to do, imo.
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A good start, hopefully for a sequel to build upon
It is not easy to create a game with over ten playstyles. Nintendo Land did it back in 2012, with a surprising amount of depth for many of the gameplay styles, so it can certainly be done. But it requires a lot of effort to make sure each gameplay style is not only its own thing, but feels fleshed out enough to be satisfying.
And this game... didn't quite do that, I think, but it did provide an excellent basis for a future game.
Princess Peach enters plays and assumes the role of each play's main character. The great swordfighter, the great cowgirl, the great detective, everything. And the gameplay changes accordingly. Most of the plays are about action, using abilities such as grabbing enemies with a lasso and throwing them, performing different attacks with a sword, and so on. Some of these plays mix up the gameplay style, such as one-on-one timing-based boss fights in the kung fu plays, riding a horse and chasing enemies in the cowgirl plays, automatic runners in the ninja plays, and more.
The other types of plays mix up the gameplay with other styles. As a chef, Peach bakes cookies and places them on a tray quickly, and must do so within a time limit or else face a penalty of some sort (such as a low score that prevents the player from receiving a reward). As a detective, Peach talks to characters who provide clues, and tries to suss out who might be lying, an enemy in disguise, or where something is hidden.
The theater theme is played to the hilt. Each play has characters who provide simple (written, not spoken) dialog that explains what's happening and provides a sense that Peach has indeed inserted herself into the play and is simply going along with the story being acted out around her. Here, please help us rescue our master. A thief stole the jewels from the museum, and we need your help. Whatever it is, Peach is playing the starring role and going along with a story that wasn't written for her.
The issues, to me, are the game's brevity, low difficulty, and lack of depth. The action-based plays have a very limited variety of moves to perform. There are only thirty plays (not including boss fights and special challenges). And the game is super easy, with its challenge hidden behind bonus plays, or attempting to collect all the hidden sparkles from each play and cash those in to decorate the theater. There's post-game content but it's limited.
I do however really appreciate what Good Feel was going for here, and I'd love to see this idea revisited in a sequel. Maybe then we'll get a bit more challenge (but not so much as to frustrate younger players), more content, and more depth. But for now, what we got is a creative idea in a nice, cozy little game that really could stand to be built upon.