Poor Form Vanillaware

If you read my blog regularly then you know I love my Nintendo Switch. I’ve never outright said that it’s my favorite console, but I spend more hours a week playing games on it than anything else. I buy more full-priced games on Switch than any other console, though to be fair Nintendo doesn’t leave me much of a choice. I also preorder more games on Switch than any other platform I currently play on.

One of the things I like best about the Nintendo Switch is that, or at least so far as I believed until this recent incident, the physical games are completely region free. I have written extensively about my struggles as an American gamer living in Taiwan that can’t read Chinese. I have not purchased a physical PlayStation game in Taiwan for some time, because the discs are region locked. Normally, the main reason this is a problem is because of how the DLC is managed, but language is also often a factor. PlayStation and XBOX games have regional language limitations. When you look at the back of a PS5 game case, you can see the languages that specific disc supports. In the USA, it’s always going to be English at a minimum, but usually Spanish, and often French, will be supported as well. Here in Taiwan, the minimum is Chinese, but usually Japanese, and sometimes English, will be supported as well.

From Darius Cozmic Revelation

There have been countless games that I would have purchased physical versions of in Taiwan on PlayStation consoles that I couldn’t because there was no English language supported version for the physical disc available in Taiwan. I was under the impression that this was never the case for the Switch. I currently own 56 physical Switch games. 31 of those were purchased from local stores in Taiwan. Of those 31, only 1 of them didn’t allow me to play the game in English, and that was because a physical copy of the English translation of the game did not exist when I bought it. This is not something I ever checked for on the game packaging. This was/is, to the best of my knowledge, a general practice implemented by the Switch architecture. Games on the Switch default to the language of the region your console is set to, whether they’re digital or physical copies. Unless the game has built in language settings that you have manually set to something other than your default language, the game just plays in your account language. This of course only applies to games where a translation of the game in your account language exists.

I have encountered Switch games that literally don’t have an English localization/translation version. In these cases, the game only runs in the native language it was created in, which is usually Japanese or Chinese. But I never buy games that I’m not sure have an English translation, unless it’s a game where I know I can play it regardless of the language. That 1 game that didn’t play in English on my Switch was Darius Cozmic Revelation. I knew that didn’t have an English translation when I bought it. But it’s a basic SHMUP game that I’ve played countless variations and clones of since I was a kid. I knew I could figure it out and enjoy it in any language, because I wasn’t playing it for the almost nonexistent story anyway. Furthermore, saying that Darius Cozmic Revelation doesn’t have an English translation is a half truth. Out of the box, it does have English text in it. It’s just not all the text. The menus are in English for me. Many of the tutorial images have English text scattered throughout them. It’s just not fully translated to pure English. And much of the in-game text actually is in English, at least for some of the games in the collection. The point is that one of the things I love most about the Switch is that I literally have never had to worry about the region I purchased a physical cartridge in, because both language and DLC access are based on the region of your account, rather than the location the cartridge was purchased in. Or so I thought. This has been true in 30/31 physical cartridges I have tried on my Switch that were sold to me in Asia, that had an English version available at the time of purchase. But sadly, I finally found an outlier in the recently released Unicorn Overlord from Vanillaware, which is that 31st cartridge.

Taiwan Version in Sealed Case

I was quite taken with the demo for Unicorn Overlord. So much so that I chose to write a review of it. You can read that here, if you’re interested. I knew I was going to buy it at some point. Recently, it was my birthday, so while I didn’t really need to buy it now, as I have too many games to play, I decided to treat myself. As I do prefer physical media, as well as supporting local businesses, I wanted a physical edition of the game. The game has sold really well in Taiwan. Surprisingly, I was not able to find a physical copy for more than a month after it launched. Several game stores I frequent were sold out. So when I finally saw a physical copy of it, I jumped at the chance. I never even considered that I wouldn’t be able to play the game in English with this cartridge. As far as I was concerned, it was literally an impossibility, since I already knew that an English translation of the game exists, having played the demo. Additionally, the cover of the Taiwan physical copy is literally in English. There is no Chinese or Japanese version of the game’s logo. The Asian copies use the same English logo title and then add some additional writing in their local language underneath it. The back of the cover is in Chinese, but I own plenty of Switch games like that. So I bought the game without even thinking about checking to see if I’d be able to play it in English with this cartridge.

I take the game home and open it without so much as a Google on the issue of language, because I really did not know that it could even be an issue on the Switch. But as soon as I inserted the cartridge into my Switch, I knew something was wrong. The Taiwan physical version of Unicorn Overlord doesn’t say Unicorn Overlord in the Switch home screen. It says the title of the game in Chinese. This is something I had never seen before, save for with games that literally didn’t have an English translation, as I discussed earlier in this post. This was an immediate red flag for me, but I didn’t think it would be an issue. So I load up the game to find it running in Chinese. But only sort of. The main menu was in English. New Game, Continue, Settings, and Extras menu options were all in English. So, I believed that the game was running in English, like it should have been. But when I pressed new game, everything was in Chinese. I was surprised, but not worried. I assumed that it was defaulting to Chinese but could easily be changed in the settings. Sadly, I was wrong.

I go to the settings menu to discover that while I can change the voice acting between Japanese and English, ironically with no Chinese option at all, I can’t change the in-game text. Can’t change the menus or dialog text. It’s Chinese or bust. What’s especially irritating is that some of the text in the UI for the Chinese version is still in English, adding insult to injury. I was shocked. I was angry. Not just because I couldn’t play this game, but because suddenly everything I thought I knew about Switch games turned out to be potentially false. Maybe all these games weren’t defaulting to English as a general rule of how the Switch works for its users. Maybe all these games that I just happened to have bought, including both first and third party titles, just happened to have been made by developers that cared enough to make their games playable for all users, regardless of where they live and/or purchase their games. Statistically speaking, that sounds insane. The idea that only one developer/publisher would have been lazy and the rest went out of their way to do right by consumers just can’t be true. It goes against all evidence and reason.

What’s more likely is that a specific studio, in this case Vanillaware, went out of their way to region lock their Switch game. But why would a studio do this on the Switch? On PlayStation and XBOX consoles, this is, sadly, still the norm. But on the Switch this is far from normal. It was standard on past Nintendo consoles, but the company went out of their way to amend this long-standing problem; not only matching Sony and Microsoft’s commitment to discs running on consoles from any region, but also making language packs available to all players via internet patching. So why would Atlus allow this to happen with a game published by them in 2024?

Multi-language access on the PC is such a standard that it’s not even worth discussing, and has been for years. When you download a game on Ubisoft Connect, the first thing it does is ask you which language packs you would like to download. This even happens when you install demos. On Switch, the console normally defaults the game’s language for you without even asking you what you want, unless the game itself asks you. Why make a game as highly anticipated as Unicorn Overlord was before launch less accessible? I honestly can’t think of a good answer here. Sadly, I don’t even have any other physical Switch games from Atlus to check if this is normal for games published by them, or if Unicorn Overlord is an outlier. But in any case, I do not like seeing this practice on the Switch. It’s a step backwards both technologically and in terms of Quality of Life features. Who’s to say that people don’t want to play games in translations other than their native language? People like to watch anime subbed. Should Japanese gamers not be able to play American games in English, just because they live in Japan. It’s a ridiculous practice on any platform, but it’s even more ridiculous when applied to a platform that had done away with it years prior.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to get a refund for this copy of Unicorn Overlord. As the game was open and technically functioning as intended, they deemed it an invalid grounds for return, as they wouldn’t be able to resell it as new or report it as defective. So, they instead offered me to trade it for any used game they had. To my disappointment, they didn’t have anything I really wanted and didn’t already own in their used Switch pile. So I ended up with Octopath Traveler, which I considered an equivalent trade as far as the games were concerned. I really wish they would have had Fire Emblem Engage or Tactics Ogre: Reborn. But at least I got a turn-based RPG from a company I trust to make them. Ironically, the first thing that came up when I loaded up Octopath Traveler was a screen that said I can play the game in any language I want and easily change it in the menus at any time, because that’s how games should work in 2024.

So I have to say poor form to Vanillaware. I had only played one of their games previously (Dragon’s Crown), and I never finished it. I was excited to play Unicorn Overlord, and now they’ve soured the entire idea for me over an issue that shouldn’t exist to begin with. I can’t say when or if I’ll end up buying the game again, but now I definitely won’t buy it until the price has dropped to at least $30. Maybe even $20. Because now I have to make up for paying $55 (Taiwan price after conversion) for a used copy of a game I didn’t actually want. And after Unicorn Overlord, who’s to say if I’ll ever consider buying a game from them again. And all over a problem that should never have occurred.

As always, thanks for reading. Please take the time to follow my blog, leave a comment, and check out some of my other channels if you enjoyed what you read.

Mimi the Cat: Mimi’s Scratcher Review – 4/10

I’m always happy to try indie games, because often they surprise me and end up delivering experiences that I never would have expected. I think about games like Vampire Survivors, because it looked so terrible to me, but then I tried it and ended up putting more than 50 hours into it. So I’ll always give an indie game that looks interesting to me a shot. Sadly, sometimes a game really is as basic and bland as it looks. This is the case with Mimi the Cat: Mimi’s Scratcher (Scratcher) from Wise Box Studios.

There really isn’t much to say about this game, because you can totally get what it is just from watching the one-minute trailer. It’s a casual, low stakes puzzle game that feels more like it should be on mobile rather than a home console. While I played it on the Nintendo Switch while docked, it absolutely makes more sense to play this in handheld mode while doing something else, like watching TV.

Visually, Scratcher is fine. It’s extremely minimalist in its visual style. The levels are floating squares in a single-color void with a few gridlines underneath to help you better manage your positioning. But since the game is pretty simple, the additional gridlines aren’t really necessary. You can change the background color of the world at any time just by pressing B. You don’t even have to go into the menu to do it, which is a nice accessibility option coupled with very convenient QoL design. But overall, it’s a pretty bland, barebones looking game.

The cat’s movement animations aren’t great, but I wouldn’t say they’re terrible. Given the scope of this game, they’re certainly not a hindrance. You’re definitely here for the gameplay rather than the graphics. Which isn’t really an issue for a level-based puzzle game like this. Even the menus are extremely barebones, giving you little in the way of options. It’s just start the game or go to settings. And the settings are only setting the volume for music and sound effects and changing the language. Kudos to the studio for providing translations in eight different languages, but since there’s no story, it’s really just the few controls in the tutorial; and you could easily figure out pretty much all of them on your own in a couple minutes. But the text is a very readable sans-serif font, so at least there’s that.

As for writing, there isn’t any to speak of, the gameplay controls notwithstanding, so that’s all I’ll say about that. They don’t even explain to you why Mimi the cat is in this weird void of nothingness pushing boxes around to reach a magical floating cat scratcher. But that’s fine. The trailer was honest about what I’d be getting into, so I won’t fault them for that. However, a story might have motivated me to push through to the end of the game.

The audio experience is also pretty simple. There are a small number of effects, which mostly amounts to pushing boxes around and reaching the goal at the end of each stage. I feel like they could have done a bit more with the cat making sounds, but that probably would have gotten annoying eventually. Even navigating the menus is a silent experience, save for the chime you hear when you select something. I was impressed by the song that starts playing when you first load up the game. It was a more intricate composition than I would have expected from a game like this. That said, it’s the only song the game has. It just plays in an endless loop as you pass through the levels; and yes, it does get old. Honestly, you could play this game silent while watching TV or listening to music and the experience wouldn’t be much different. It certainly wouldn’t be worse.

The gameplay works for what it intends to be. It’s a straightforward puzzle game where you’re trying to reach a clearly marked goal in every stage. The trick is that the goal is basically always floating in the air. So you have to move boxes around in order to place them in such a way that you can climb up and reach the goal. The concept is simple, but these puzzles do get progressively harder with each stage.

You can only climb up one level at a time, which is defined as the height of one box. Boxes can be stacked to make stairs. However, you can’t move stacked boxes. Boxes can be unstacked, but only when the cat is on the same level as the top box in the stack. Meaning that in order to unstack a two-box high stack you have to have a third box next to that two-stack. You climb up that one box and then push the top box of that two-stack off. Boxes can only be pushed forward; and they cannot be pushed off the stage. Meaning that you have to be careful of dead ends and trapping yourself with stacks you can’t climb. Boxes automatically stack when you push them into each other, so it’s important that you watch what you’re doing. At level 21, you encounter crates. Crates differ from boxes, because they can’t be pushed. Crates can appear in single and double stack instances. Boxes can be stacked on to crates.

A second aspect of the gameplay is jumping. You can’t manually jump, but you can clear certain gaps. While you can only climb up one level, you can jump down two. Or at least two, since I have yet to encounter a three-stack scenario. You can also jump across gaps that are one square wide and one level below. Meaning that if you are standing on a box next to a hole that is one square long, you can jump from that box to the other side of that hole. You can also jump across a gap from a two-stack, but you can still only clear a single space gap when jumping. Additionally, you can jump from a two-stack to a one-stack across a gap.

Interestingly, you can carry boxes when they’re stacked on top of crates or boxes, but only for as long as it takes to carry the box off the crate. You can even jump over a gap while carrying a box, as long as it’s on top of a crate or other box when the action starts. You stack boxes by pushing one box into another one. It stacks automatically when this is done. The same thing happens when you push a box into a crate.

As with most puzzle games of this nature, a big part of the experience is trial and error. Thankfully, Scratcher has one of the most convenient restart mechanics I’ve ever experienced. You can restart a stage at any time by pressing X. Again, you don’t have to go to the menu to do this. And the loading time is nearly instant, so it’s not troublesome when you get stuck and have to reload. That’s probably why they kept the graphics so minimal. I only cleared the first 26 levels before I got bored with it, so there may be additional aspects to the gameplay I haven’t encountered. But there are only 55 levels in total, so I can’t see the gameplay getting much more interesting or complicated. Scratcher is what it is; and what it is, sadly, is pretty boring. I will say that I appreciated the fact that you can basically play the game with one hand. Especially since you have to use the d-pad rather than the joystick to play anyway.

There’s not really any replay value in this game, as there’s little in the way of variation to the gameplay. I’m sure some of the puzzles have more than one solution, but they would not be so wildly different that you would be able to call it a different or dynamic experience. Once you clear the 55 stages, that’s pretty much it. And I was able to clear 20 of them in under an hour. Meaning that unless you get stuck on certain puzzles for a long time, this is at most a two-hour game. With the $5 price tag, I can’t say that it’s worth it.

Mimi the Cat: Mimi’s Scratcher is not a bad game so much as it’s a mediocre game. It feels very much like a game jam type of project rather than a commercial project. Something to try but not to buy as it were. And if you do buy it, the game won’t last long anyway. This isn’t some hidden gem indie game that’s short but tells an amazing, emotionally impactful story. It’s really just 55 puzzles that you’ll solve once and then be done with. While playing this game, I was reminded of Freshly Frosted. It is more expensive, with a $10 price tag, but it’s also a superior puzzle game experience in pretty much every way. It has more than double the number of stages, a story, and much more dynamic and interesting gameplay. If you are looking for a casual, puzzle game with more depth to it, I’d definitely recommend that over this one. I rate Mimi the Cat: Mimi’s Scratcher a 4/10.

As always, thanks for reading. Please take the time to follow my blog, leave a comment, and check out some of my other channels if you enjoyed what you read.

Final Fantasy I (Micro-Review)

I’m a Final Fantasy fan, but what that means in 2024 is a bit debatable. The reality is that I have been playing FF games regularly for more than a decade. My first Final Fantasy was FFX, which I still consider the best overall game the franchise has ever produced. To date, I have played X, XII, XIII, VII, XV, and I in that order. I’m also currently playing II for the first time. I have played some of the spin-off titles, like XIII-2, but I don’t want to talk about those in this post. While I consider myself a fan of the franchise, and continue to purchase and play the games, the reality is that I have loved only half of the games I’ve played in the franchise, liked one of them, and hated two of them. Not to mention the fact that of 16 mainline titles, I’ve only played through six of them. Though I am currently playing through the Pixel Remaster collection, so I will have added five more games to that list hopefully by the end of this year. I identify as a FF fan, but I can definitely see why that statement could be considered questionable.

As I just recently finished FFI for the first time, in the Pixel Remaster collection, I decided that I wanted to do a post that was somewhat akin to a review, but really it’s more of a discussion on classic JRPGs and how it feels to play one in 2024. So while I will comment on my experience of playing the game in this post, I will not address all the aspects of the game that I would in one of my normal reviews.

The first thing that really stood out to me about Final Fantasy I is that it actually holds up really well today. Honestly speaking, there are a lot of things the game does, for better or for worse, that we still often see in modern RPGs. The turn-based combat, which I love, feels both dated and modern at the same time. A lot of the same practices are used, such as elemental weaknesses and resistances, critical hits, and the ability for attacks to miss. Any Pokémon player can easily walk on to FFI. Yet the combat offers things that many later JRPGs lack. For starters, your party has four members. My first FF only had three party members available in combat at the same time. The same is true for VII, which is many people’s favorite game in the series. Alongside that, the favored turn-based FF titles tend to max out at three enemies. FFI has battles with up to nine enemies at once.

Combat capabilities in FFI are limited by class; and that part isn’t fun. Especially when it comes to magic. I chose to have a red mage instead of a white mage alongside my three other party members, and that was a major mistake. It was super irritating not being able to learn spells like any level of group heal. Meanwhile, most of the black magic spells in the game can be learned by a red mage, so the experience felt very lopsided. I used more items in this game than probably any other FF I’ve ever played. It was the only way to make up for the lack of group healing magic; and it absolutely made the game harder.

Something that I really appreciated about FFI was how streamlined the experience was. Today, every RPG, Japanese or otherwise, feels way too long. I don’t actually think it was intentional for this game to feel so respectful of my time, but being able to finish a AAA franchise JRPG in under 20 hours was very refreshing. Even with the bit of grinding I had to do, the game never felt too long or slow paced by comparison to many modern titles. And I do get that many people today are split on that issue. In my youth, I too wanted games to be as long as possible. Now, as a busy adult with a hefty backlog, I only want games to be as long as they need to be. I’m over pointless fetch quests, monotonous collectibles, and unfulfilling side quests that add nothing to the experience other than time spent. FFXV, as the latest installment in the series I’ve played, is filled to the brim with side quests that just wasted my time. FFI sent me around the map multiple times, made me find secret locations, and even had me revisit dungeons all while still keeping the entire experience under 20 hours. I will acknowledge that the Pixel Remaster version of the game removed the bonus dungeons, for some odd reason, so the game should have been slightly longer, but I’m fairly confident that it still would have been less than 30 hours total.

I appreciated how coherent and complete the story is in FFI. It’s definitely a much simpler narrative than many of the games we get today, even in this specific franchise, but it was also better written in many ways, because it was a clear narrative with a fulfilling ending. No open-ended nonsense. No moral ambiguity about whether or not slaying the final boss was a righteous decision. I knew why the characters were there. I knew what they had to do. And I never felt like they were unjustified in why they had to do it. Too many games today have fallen into the “Are we the baddies?” trope. And many of the ones that don’t just don’t take their writing seriously at all. Neither is good structure for writing in a video game, in my opinion. I shouldn’t feel confused about why my actions are my actions in a video game. And I should never feel like an asshole at the end of a game, unless it’s a game with morality options and I’ve chosen to play as an asshole, which I almost never do.

I don’t want to talk about the graphics, because this is a remaster of a port of a game from 1987. So all I’ll say on that front is that the dated graphics were in no way a hindrance to my enjoyment. But that’s obviously a personal preference issue, so I’m sure some people will find this game unplayable today; and those people are wrong.

I don’t know if the original version of the game had this, but being able to save at any time is always a pleasure that all games should have at this point. That said, I found the save vs quick save function to be odd and pointless. You can save when on the world map, but not when you’re in a specific location. Whether it’s a town or a dungeon, you will not be able to save. But you can quick save at any time in any location, except for while in combat. Quick saving works exactly like saving, save for the fact that you only have one quick save slot vs the 20 regular save slots.

There were little things that I didn’t like, such as the fact that you can’t buy elixirs, but these sorts of issues didn’t prevent me from completing the game. Apparently, you can farm elixirs in the bonus dungeon, but again they removed that from this version of the game for some reason. This definitely made the final boss more troublesome, because it was a pretty unbalanced fight without a white mage. Yet the game still took me less than 20 hours to complete.

All in all, I really enjoyed Final Fantasy I. I’m glad to have finally been able to play it. As it stands, it’s probably in my top three FF games, that I’ve actually beaten. As I write this, I’ve already started FFII, so I’ll probably end up doing mini-review of all six games in the Pixel Remaster collection. However, rather than giving them number grades, I’m going to rank them all among the mainline FF games I’ve beaten. So as of right now, here’s my current ranking.

1. FFX

2. FFXII

3. FFI

4. FFVII

5. FFXIII

6. FXV

As always, thanks for reading. Please take the time to follow my blog, leave a comment, and check out some of my other channels if you enjoyed what you read.

Marvel Rivals . . . WTF?

A couple weeks ago, Marvel announced that a new game leveraging their beloved IP was on the horizon. As any gamer who likes Marvel can attest, this can be great news. Such as with Marvel’s Spider-Man from Insomniac Games. Or this can be bad news. Such as with Marvel’s Avengers from Square Enix. In defense of Square Enix, we don’t always know at announcement which type of news we’re getting. I’m happy to admit that I was very excited about Marvel’s Avengers at announcement. Conversely, I was absolutely not happy with the announcement of Marvel’s Midnight Suns from Firaxis Games. It’s wasn’t until I got to try the demo that I was sold on the game. You can read a blog post about that here, if you’re interested. All that said, Marvel quickly confirmed that this new game was absolutely bad news.

Marvel Rivals is a PVP hero shooter; and everything about that description is everything that’s wrong with this announcement. As was said by pretty much the entirety of the internet on the day of the announcement, “NO ONE ASKED FOR THIS.” Not a single person actually wanted this game to happen. Not even people who play hero shooters. There’s no reason for Marvel/Disney to try to compete with an already bloated market filled with popular trash like Overwatch 2 and Apex Legends. And honestly, it’s a stupid choice to even try.

Here’s the reality of trying to launch a PVP hero shooter in 2024. No matter how good your game is, it’s not going to succeed without investing a butt-ton into not only marketing, but more importantly the competitive scene. People don’t play these hero shooters because they’re actually fun. They’re terrible games. They play them because there’s money to be made. They play them for the esports opportunities. They play them because they get views on Twitch and other gaming streaming platforms. People are not still playing Overwatch 2 because they genuinely think it’s a good game. They’re just hoping to get a seat on that gravy train. Even the 40-something year old dad who only plays a couple hours a night after a long day at work only plays because in the back of his head, he wants to believe that eventually he could get good enough to make it at the competitive level. He never will, but that hope keeps him coming back. Because at least he has something to hope for. The point is that without building a lucrative esports community, which is entirely driven by money in 2024, there’s no hope for this game, or any other new hero shooter.

People will definitely try Marvel Rivals. The latest thing is always appealing. Assuming it’s F2P, I’ll probably download it and try a round. The important thing is that people won’t stay. Unless there’s money to be made, all those Apex Legends and Overwatch 2 players will quickly return to their equally mediocre, but already established and potentially lucrative niches. Why would you start from scratch if there’s no money to be made? What irritates me is that this is another textbook example of the gaming industry having good ideas, but fumbling the execution.

Let me be honest in saying that the gameplay for Marvel Rivals looks really interesting. In the trailer, there’s a sequence where someone playing as Doctor Strange opens a portal that allows someone playing as Spider-Man to jump through and land in the center of a firefight, completely disrupting the situation. There’s another sequence where someone playing as Rocket Racoon jumps on to the shoulder of someone playing as Groot, allowing them to do a cooperative frontal assault. I want to play a game with this sort of dynamic gameplay! Every Marvel fan does. What I don’t want is to play a PVP hero shooter filled with microtransactions and no story campaign. This looks like the gameplay I wanted Marvel’s Avengers to have. But instead of making a cooperative story focused game, they made a PVP shooter. What were you thinking, Marvel? You nearly struck gold. Then you turned it into shit, like some sort of reverse alchemy scenario. Why doesn’t the industry ever just give us the nice things we actually want?

I would happily pay for a game that has the kind of gameplay shown in the Marvel Rivals trailer but operates like Lego Marvel Super Heroes. That’s really all they need to do. And again, that was supposed to be what Marvel’s Avengers was. But they cheaped out on the execution. And now Marvel Rivals is just straight up executing the wrong thing. It’s all so tiring at this point. I know the skills to make the Marvel game the people want exists. I also know that such a game could be profitable. The problem is that the people in charge will always say that they want it to be more profitable and then screw up everything as a consequence. At least we have Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra to look forward to.

As always, thanks for reading. Please take the time to follow my blog, leave a comment, and check out some of my other channels if you enjoyed what you read.

A Casual Gamer’s Paradise (Princess Peach: Showtime!)

When I first heard about Princess Peach: Showtime! (Showtime!), I was skeptical, until I saw the announcement trailer. The idea of a game where the character could transform into a large number of different variations, each with their own unique gameplay, is a great concept. In fact, it reminds me of an old favorite of mine from the XBOX 360 days called Kameo: Elements of Power (2005). After playing the demo, I was sold. Granted, I buy a large number of the first party Nintendo titles, so it wasn’t really a tough sell for me to pick up this one. However, what I did not expect was how easily I would be able to add it into my current play schedule without making any serious adjustments.

In my younger days, I only played one game at a time. Unless you count mobile games, which I’m only ever playing one at a time as well, I used to spend all my gaming time on a single game. I’d play it until the end and then move on to the next game. Starting a second game while in the middle of one was unheard for me. Now, I’m running four different games, plus a regular mobile game, concurrently.

My “main” game right now is Starfield. I play it just about every night before I go to bed. At work, during my lunch breaks, I normally play an indie game that I can play without sound. I’ve written about this in a previous blog post. Currently, I’m playing Cursed to Golf, which I’m determined to beat, even though it’s really tough. Recently, my commute increased by double the travel time and now requires me to spend at least an hour on the subway every day. During that time, I’m currently playing Final Fantasy I in the Pixel Remaster collection on Nintendo Switch. When I watch TV, I’m often playing something on handheld. Either my ROG Ally or Nintendo Switch. Currently, I’m playing Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which is excellent and definitely worth your time. That’s four games at once. So when I decided to preorder Prince Peach: Showtime!,with a voucher, I wasn’t sure when I was going to actually have time to play it.

To my surprise, I was able to implement Showtime! into my play schedule rather easily. And the reason for that is because of how it’s structured. Showtime! is a single game, but it doesn’t really feel like one. Instead, it feels like a collection of short games. Not mini-games such as those you find in Mario Party or WarioWare. The stages in Showtime! feel more complete than that. Yet, they’re still short, casual experiences that you can easily pick up and complete in under 30 minutes.

Each stage in Showtime! is its own play in a theater. I could go into the details about how this is shown visually, but it’s unnecessary for this particular post. What’s more important is that every stage is comprised of its own unique world, gameplay, and story. Each play has its own villain, victims to save, costume for Peach to wear, and gameplay changing power. When you finish a stage, it feels very complete. You experienced a full story, new gameplay, and, assuming you found the collectible, unlocked a new costume. The experience feels complete at the end of every stage. As such, the game feels great to play just one stage at a time.

Rather than sit and play Showtime! for an extended period of time in a single session, I’ve played only one stage each night since I started it. If I don’t get all the collectibles in a single attempt, which happens at least 50% of the time so far, I’ll replay that stage for the 100% completion. But after that I stop. Even if I do have time to play more, I don’t. At that point, I load up Starfield. And playing it that way feels great. I always leave the game both satisfied and feeling like I want more. When I play it again the next day, I know that my experience will be entirely different, complete with a new story, new gameplay, and a new reward. It’s the perfect casual gaming experience. Honestly, I should probably end my days with Showtime! instead of Starfield. Then at least I would get a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

I don’t know how many total stages there are in Showtime!, but playing it has been a great experience in every session. It’s the perfect casual game that still feels like it has substance. Because you are still playing towards a larger goal and story. It’s just broken up into several pieces that can standalone as their own experiences.

This post isn’t a review, as I’ve only played the first five stages so far, so it didn’t seem appropriate to write one. But I do highly recommend the game to anyone looking for a casual gaming experience that’s fun and fulfilling. So far, I’ve really enjoyed all the costume powers I’ve tried, save for maybe Patisserie Peach, but I still appreciated how different that stage was from the others I’ve played up to now. Princess Peach: Showtime! is definitely worth checking out. And since there’s a free demo, you have no reason not to give it a try.

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