You ever just stop and think about how a game should exist, but doesn’t? That may sound silly, but I found myself recently wondering why on earth we haven’t gotten a new Punch-Out!! game on Switch. I’m quite fond of the series and enjoyed the little cameo it got in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, where portraits of the boxers adorned the wall of the local pizzeria, but I’ve been itching to play a new one and it’s nowhere to be found.
Little Mac’s iconic pink tracksuit.
For the unfamiliar, Punch-Out!! is a Nintendo series that began life in the arcades in 1983. In 1987, the most famous version was made for the NES. It featured Mike Tyson as the final boss, and was titled Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! to capitalize on his star power at the time. You take on the role of Little Mac, a teenage boxer hoping to climb the ranks against a quirky cast of opponents from various nations. The gameplay always struck me as more of a rhythm game than boxing simulator, and the whole game eschews realism in favor of memorable flair like having one boxer use “magic punches” to confuse you or another being so large his only weakness is distracting him by making his shorts fall down.
The game was a big hit, and sold over 2 million copies. It was eventually rebranded to remove Tyson from the game and replace him with the fictional Mr. Dream, but the core gameplay remained the same. It spawned a sequel on the Super Nintendo and a reboot on the Wii. The latter was the last game we got in the series, all the way back in 2009, and I think it provided a perfect template for how a Switch version could work. Punch-Out!! on Wii utilized the console’s signature motion controls, which I think any veteran of Wii Sports can tell you is perfect for a boxing game. It also added fun new modes like Title Defense, where Mac must defend his title against his old foes with new gimmicks and techniques, and Mac’s Last Stand, where Mac decides to retire after he loses 3 times. You face off against random opponents until you lose those 3 matches, and Mac keeps his word, with the standard Career mode no longer being available on that save file.
Little Mac being so tiny just makes me root for him even more.
I think you could honestly just port Punch-Out!! Wii to the Switch and it would still be great fun. An entirely new entry would be even better, though. Imagine online matches against real people around the world! That could breathe new life into the series. Sure, we have multiple Fitness Boxing games on the system (including the outrageously delightful Fist of the North Star variant) and Arms, but they aren’t quite the same as watching Little Mac’s rise to fame. For now, I suppose I’ll have to be content with getting to play as the pint-sized brawler in Super Smash Bros., but I’d love to step into the ring again.
After getting plenty of screen time in the Mario movie, Princess Peach has landed a starring role in her own adventure, Princess Peach: Showtime!, for the Switch. I’ve spent the past few days playing it, and found it to be a delightfully campy outing for gaming’s most famous lady. This is a game I would have loved as a kid, and I hope we see more outings from her in the future.
There’s plenty of action in Kung Fu Peach’s levels.
I never cared much for Super Mario Bros. 2, but I remember playing it a bit as a kid because Peach was an option on the character select screen. Many years later, she got a solo game in the form of Super Princess Peach for the DS. I didn’t play it, and mostly just remember people laughing at it because the main gimmick was Peach using her emotions to attack, so I couldn’t tell you what the actual quality was like. Fast forward to 2024, and Princess Peach: Showtime! is here to once again place the spotlight on our girl from the Mushroom Kingdom. I was pretty happy when this was announced, and knew I’d give it a shot. I’ve been a Nintendo fan for most of my life, and was eager to see how Peach would fare in her own adventure.
I’m happy to report I really like the game! Our story begins with Peach and a few toads going to see a play at the lavish Sparkle Theater. Before the show can begin, however, an evil sorceress named Madame Grape and her minions the Sour Bunch attack the theater, plotting to take it over. With the help of Stella, a cute little star who guards the theater, Peach sets out to rescue the Sparklas, the stars of all the plays at Sparkle Theater. With their help, the two hope to defeat Madame Grape and save the day.
Mermaid Peach giving off Disney vibes.
The structure is sort of like Super Mario 64, except instead of jumping into paintings, Peach enters each of the plays at the theater and assumes the starring role. She transforms into the likes of Swordfighter Peach, Ninja Peach and Figure Skater Peach along the way, all with their own unique abilities. This lends a nice amount of variety to the gameplay. For example, Swordfighter Peach is centered around combat that includes a dodge that slows down time when executed perfectly, which you have seen before if you’ve ever played a Platinum game like Bayonetta or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Detective Peach, on the other hand, eschews combat entirely in favor of looking for clues and questioning suspects while solving a mystery. Mermaid Peach uses the power of song to control fish, while Patissiere Peach decorates cakes and bakes cookies via minigames. My personal favorite is Mighty Peach, a sci-fi heroine who lifts busses like Superman and punches asteroids.
Mighty Peach’s levels are like playing through a vintage sci-fi TV show.
Each world offers fun little challenges based around these abilities, plus hidden goodies and collectibles to find. Each level has several Sparkles to find, which are similar to the standard Mario stars, moons, shines, etc. Some are given as rewards for completing main objectives in the levels or helping out Theets, the adorable inhabitants of the theater who play various roles in the productions. Others are hidden behind the set dressing or in rooms off the main path. If you collect all of them in a level, a photographer will give you a commemorative photo of your adventure. Each level also includes a special Theet who requires rescuing from the Sour Bunch, often in hidden areas, who will reward you with a new dress pattern for Peach or ribbon color for Stella.
The presentation is perfect, with the theater theme adding tons of charm to the experience. Levels are presented as a stage with all the appropriate set dressing, like backgrounds made of cardboard standees and aerial objects hanging from strings. Theets will have spotlights put on them when they’re sad and dejected, then once you help them out, the lights will brighten back up and they’ll start dancing. The gameplay is heavy on setpieces that add to the theatrical flair, such as an ice skating duel or a chase on horseback through the wild west. It’s a visual treat, and all the costumes (both available by default and unlockable) are a nice touch.
Every level looks just like watching a play unfold.
Seeing Peach embody so many cool personas reminds me of playing with Barbie dolls as a little girl in the best way. The game is unmistakably and unashamedly girly while still providing fun and surprisingly challenging gameplay, and I appreciate that as a woman who grew up playing video games. She’s both sweet and tough here, showing care for the adorable Theets and Stella while putting the bad guys in their place. Brains and brawn both come into play and help make this incarnation of Peach a well-rounded heroine.
I was curious how the difficulty would turn out in this game, and it’s actually not as easy as I expected it to be. While I think it’s going to provide a fun time for any kids who play it, they might need some parental assistance at times. Some of the Sparkles require precise platforming, quick-time events and that aforementioned Bayonetta combat to obtain, which I suspect can get a bit too complex for younger children. One complaint I have is that levels must be replayed from start to finish if you need to go back and pick up any items you missed the first time around. None of the levels are particularly long, but it can be frustrating having to start over for a Sparkle you missed in the middle of the level and then have to finish it for it to count. Just be warned if you have small children that they may need your help with some parts of the game.
Princess Peach: Showtime! is a game I would have adored as a kid. It has its flaws, like uneven difficulty and some bad performance issues here and there, but none of that can hamper my enjoyment for such a fun and whimsical game. Like I said above, I appreciate that it’s a very girly adventure at heart and proud of it. The gameplay is fun and varied while integrating my love of dressing up characters and theater, and I hope we see more titles like it in the future. If you like this kind of stuff, you should definitely consider checking it out.
I’m really looking forward to playing the Super Mario RPG remake tomorrow. A childhood favorite, I’ve always loved its adorable characters, cute world, fun combat system and funny writing. There’s another factor that’s been on my mind lately, though, and that’s the simplicity of the game. When I get it, I’ll pop the cart into my console and start playing. And once the ending credits roll, that’s it. Maybe there will be a post-game boss, but the game has a definite start and finish. There’s no battle pass. There aren’t a bunch of procedurally generated extra dungeons added to the map. I feel like this simplicity has been missing from many modern games, and I find myself longing for it more and more.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker’s diorama-like stages are short and sweet.
Modern gaming feels like it’s become rather bloated to me, be it in file sizes, game length or extraneous features. As much as I loved Elden Ring, I really don’t need every game I play to have a gigantic open world full of side content, for instance. Further, the amount of requirements to even play some games is starting to become tiresome. I’ve found myself gravitating to more indie games on my PC lately because so many big AAA releases want you to make an account, install their publisher’s unique launcher, agree to multiple terms of service and privacy policy documents, install Denuvo or their preferred anti-cheat program, and possibly accept that you can only play the game while online, even if it has no multiplayer component.
I don’t mean to sound like a grumpy old person, but I can vividly remember the days growing up when I brought a video game home from the store, put the cart or disc in my console, and that was it. There were no EULAs popping up before the title screen, no trying to discern what the 3 different currencies showing up on the main menu were, no costumes that were only available as part of a seasonal battle pass that you had to grind out. I miss that feeling of completeness. I admit that it wasn’t a flawless system, as some games just released with bugs that weren’t going to be fixed, you couldn’t have online multiplayer with no online capabilities, and it didn’t stop Capcom from releasing 857 different versions of Street Fighter 2 at full price. But, as an adult who is looking to have kids in the near future, I really appreciate modern games that spare me the headache of going through all that extra required stuff and just let me play the game when I start it up.
Just put the disc for Croc: Legend of the Gobbos in your PlayStation, and you’re ready to play.
These feelings have led me to 3 different paths with my recent gaming choices. One is retro games. I’ve replayed a bunch of childhood favorites recently and discovered other retro games that are new to me because I never played them back in the day. The second option is indie games. For the most part, you aren’t going to be hit with requests to install new launchers or make the game your second job. In terms of gameplay and production values, we’re now at a point in the industry’s life where indie games run the full spectrum from the Flash animated arcade fare of Alien Hominid to the grandiose spectacle of Baldur’s Gate 3. There’s plenty to choose from in this space, so I still have lots of new games to play. Finally, there’s good old Nintendo. Not afraid to push back against wider industry trends, they still make tons of games that scratch this itch for me. While you do get some live service elements in the form of Splatfests in Splatoon 3 or DLC tracks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, many of my first-party Switch games are simple affairs that stick to the old pick-up-and-play philosophy.
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is a simple metroidvania that hearkens back to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night visually.
Not all modern gaming trends are a bad thing. I’ve enjoyed plenty of online multiplayer games myself. But, I can’t help feeling a little burned out by all the bloat that accompanies many recent games and seeking out lighter experiences both in terms of gameplay and the amount of effort required to get into the game. Thankfully, the industry is so large nowadays that there are all kinds of video games being made that can accompany all tastes.
Kay Talks Games 