Princess Peach: Showtime!

Princess Peach: Showtime! is an upcoming game for the Nintendo Switch set to be released on March 22, 2024. It is Princess Peach's first starring role in the franchise since Super Princess Peach.

The game has a stage play-themed setting. It takes place in a venue called Sparkle Theater, which a Toad invited Peach to; after a witch called Grape takes over the place, Peach and the theater's guardian Stella team up and decide to take it back and restore it by battling her minions, the Sour Bunch. At the beginning of the game, Stella gives Peach her power, turning her hair in a ponytail tied with a magenta bow instead of her usual crown. Stella can turn into a long ribbon Peach can use to interact with on-stage elements, such as props and characters. When she enters a particular spot on stage, Peach is also capable of transforming into various costume-like forms that match the stage, such as Swordfighter Peach, Detective Peach, Patissier Peach, and Kung-Fu Peach. Every form has her own fighting style, such as Swordfighter Peach using her rapier or Kung-Fu Peach doing martial arts moves.

In Nintendo's financial report for the first quarter of their fiscal year ending 2024, the game is listed in the launch schedule as "Princess Peach will star as the main character in a brand new game". This sentence is explicitly treated as a tentative title for the game.

Story
One day in the Mushroom Kingdom, a Toad is sent a flier advertising a show at the Sparkle Theater, and Princess Peach and some Toads decide to go see it. Suddenly, the wicked Grape and the Sour Bunch invade and take over the theater. Peach teams up with the theater's guardian Stella to stop them.

Playable

 * Princess Peach
 * Stella

Supporting

 * Toads

Antagonists

 * Grape
 * Sour Bunch

Development
The game was first teased during the June 21, 2023 Nintendo Direct, alongside Super Mario RPG and Luigi's Mansion 2 HD. Also teased in the trailer was a new transformation Peach undergoes during the game, which turns her dress pale blue if she stands on a particular spot on stage. During the transformation, Stella, who was still unnamed, turns into a ribbon and twirls around her, taking the color of her dress. The same transformation appears in the September 14, 2023 Nintendo Direct, revealing it to turn Peach into her Swordfighter form.

References to other games

 * Yoshi's Cookie - The cookies Patissier Peach holds in the official art are from this game.
 * Super Mario Odyssey - The design of Peach's Castle is based off its design in this game.