jp
Home Talks and Slides My GameLog Research and Projects Publications Resume Teaching
Back  //   GameBreadth Project  //   Game Ontology Project  //   GameLog

Super Princess Peach (DS)

Status: Stopped playing - Got frustrated
I started playing this game on Saturday 13 January, 2024  //  I stopped playing this game on: Sunday 24 March, 2024
Current opinion of this game
No comment, yet.

March 24, 2024 01:12:25 PM
Made it all the way to the final boss fight - against Bowser, obviously? - but I've struggled enough with it that I decided to call it a day. It's a multi-stage battle that, as far as I can tell, requires you to use your rage ability. That's ok, except that it's hard for me to recharge it during the battle so it's a bit more frustrating than simply having to learn attack patterns and dodge attacks.

Now that I think about it, I might be "underpowered" for the end? There's lots of things I could have purchased but have not and I don't really feel like returning to old levels to "farm" them, so I feel it's better to simply move on.

And this is a strange thing to say about a Nintendo game! (that it's grindy...)


January 21, 2024 11:27:48 PM
I remember when this came out (2006?!) and how there was a little bit of controversy...and that the game was "ok" (I think) rather than great.

And, it's been a while since I've played a Mario game - even if this one doesn't have Mario in a protagonist role. You play as Peach!

The game's main mechanical innovation is that - when a certain bar is filled up - you can trigger one of Peach's 4 emotions - joy, rage, sadness and another happiness(?). They each have gameplay effects. Joy is my favorite - she spins up in the air and you can fly around briefly. Anger is flames, and burns stuff (and hurts enemies) and sadness has her crying which - when the tears land on specific places grow plants.

Oh! I just realized that I've seen these water wheels and couldn't do anything. I think I have to try tears on them? Get them to spin? I've had to use her joy flight (she spins in a tornado) to access special areas - so maybe there's this additional use for the tears? (yay! I literally just realized this as I'm writing this).

Anyways, initially I was a bit disappointed - really? she's all emotional? And I was feeling a bit "oh, Nintendo, how could you". It's too on the nose, right? In the sense of stereotypes and so on. But then I told my wife about it, and she has the opposite reaction to what I was expecting - "oh! that sounds like fun" she said - and ignored the emotions/stereotype thing altogether. So, I guess it's less problematic than I thought?

I've made it to the 3rd world now - I'm not sure how much more I'll play. It's not boring, and I've been upgrading her parasol with new abilities which is fun. So, it is very much a Mario game but here the abilities come about after purchasing them from a shop.

I was surprised at how much emphasis the game's UI makes in letting you know you can use buttons AND the stylus. And, before boss fights, there are these mini-games for getting coins that are 100% stylus driven (but you can skip them if you want).


 
kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria