Super Princess Peach
Super Princess Peach is a Nintendo DS platform game spun off from the popular Super Mario Bros.. franchise. Though Peach has had playable appearances dating back to Super Mario Bros. 2, this is the first game where she is the central playable character.
In a reversal of the typical Mario tale, Bowser has kidnapped Mario and Luigi and hauled them off to Vibe Island, and is wreaking havoc on the inhabitants' emotions with a wand called the Vibe Scepter. Determined to rescue them, Peach sets off on a journey with the help of a magical talking parasol named Perry. Due to the influence of the Vibe Scepter, Peach also gains powers based on emotions (joy, anger, sadness and calm) that will help her solve some of the puzzles.
Tropes used in Super Princess Peach include:
- Aborted Arc: There is abundant info about Perry's past in the game. Nothing comes of it at all.
- Adjective Noun Fred: "Super Princess Peach"
- Badass Princess: And how!
- Badass in Distress: Mario and Luigi. They only keep their James Bondage status for one game.
- Baleful Polymorph: The main detail of Perry's backstory.
- Big Boo's Haunt: Shriek Mansion.
- Boss Dissonance: Kirby type, unusually for a game set in the Marioverse. The bosses are the only part of the game that present any real challenge.
- Bragging Rights Reward: Endless Vibe, the most powerful ability in the game, allows you to use vibes at will without ever draining your vibe meter. The only problem? You don't get it until you've achieved 100% Completion - in other words, after you've already done everything there is to do in the game.
- Bubbly Clouds: The Giddy Sky stage
- Butt Monkey: Luigi. Bowser and Peach herself don't remember his name and call him the man in green.
- Critical Annoyance: The alarm that goes off when you're down to one heart may be the real source of the game's ease — it's so annoying that you'll immediately regenerate health just to stop it.
- A Day in the Limelight: After 20 years of sitting on the sidelines, waiting to be rescued, playing the girl, and witnessing Mario's other Co-Stars hit it big, Peach finally gets her big break.
- Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: The game has no lives, though dying sends you back to the world map, and getting back to where you were can be an annoyance. You keep all the Toads and items you found before you died, however.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Many subtle elements of the game are very reminiscent of their equivalents in Yoshi's Island -- the inflating advice blocks, several of the graphic tiles, the action-freezing cut scenes (like waiting for a beanstalk to grow), and even the eerily similar appearance of the Koopa Troopas.
- Dummied Out: Everyone's favorite Quirky Miniboss Squad, the Koopalings, were meant to appear in this game between Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Even more interestingly, Morton's and Roy's shells were meant to be recolored green for this game, predating most of their shells getting recolored for the latter game.
- Elemental Powers: Peach can use diffrent powers based on her emotions due to the influence from the Vibe Wand.
- Blow You Away: Activated when Peach becomes all perky.
- Healing Factor: Activated when Peach becomes calm.
- Making a Splash: Activated when Peach gets all teary-eyed.
- Playing with Fire: Activated when Peach gets hotheaded.
- Elite Mooks: Of a sort. Due to everything on Vibe Island being emotionally unbalanced, you have superfast Goombas, charging Paratroopas, and Boos that approach when you look their way — in addition to the regular line-up of Mario series Mooks.
- Empathic Weapon: Perry the Parasol.
- Enemy Summoner: Army Hammer Bro.
- Extreme Omnivore: Perry can swallow any enemy Peach can pick up whole. Doing so restores some vibe.
- Falling Coconuts Of Doom: Some rather spiteful Coconuts in Wavy Beach detach from their trees and drop on Peach when she walks under them.
- Free-Fall Fight: Hoo, the second boss, in his second phase.
- Gender Flip: In this spinoff, Peach is the heroine trying to save Mario from Bowser.
- Green Hill Zone: Ladida Plains.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Perry is a living umbrella. Peach hits enemies with him. She can also toss Koopa shells and other enemies.
- Home Run Hitter: How Peach eventually finishes Bowser.
- Lampshade Hanging or Refuge in Audacity, with regard to sexist stereotypes? Or perhaps even Fridge Brilliance in a few cases? The world may never know...
- Lampshade Hanging:
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Peach (end of level): "That was easy!" |
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- Lethal Lava Land: Fury Volcano.
- The Lost Woods: Hoo's Wood.
- Mana Meter: The vibe meter.
- Metal Slime: There's an easy-to-miss recurring enemy that shows up in several levels and exists largely to be difficult to defeat (and thus add to your glossary) before it escapes. Oddly enough, it's Starfy.
- Money for Nothing: Once you've purchased all the upgrades, music and whatnot, all those coins become useless.
- Non Lethal Bottomless Pits: Falling down a Bottomless Pit causes Peach to respawn in the same room with half a heart missing.
- Ocular Gushers: Peach in "Sadness" mode.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Not during the actual game, but during the special stylus challenges in the boss levels and some of the minigames. Get hit once and you'll have to start it all over again.
- Palmtree Panic: Wavy Beach.
- Parasol of Pain
- Parasol of Prettiness
- Parasol Parachute: Once purchased, anyway.
- Psychoactive Powers: The Vibes.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Along with Super Mario Bros. 2, this is one of the few games with Peach as a heroine rather than a Damsel in Distress.
- Self-Imposed Challenge: A common way of counteracting the game's easiness is to avoid buying Heart upgrades, or any upgrades whatsoever. Avoiding using the regen health vibe entirely also helps bring the game closer to standard Mario difficulty.
- Then there's the Mario Playstyle Challenge, in which the only permitted methods of attack against regular enemies are the Goomba Stomp and kicking Koopa shells. No upgrades purchased. Avoid using Vibes whenever possible.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Gleam Glacier.
- Swiss Army Tears: Peach's tears can make plants grow for her to climb, make her run fast, make water wheels go round and defeat the bad guys.
- Took a Level in Badass: Peach, compared to her usual Damsel in Distress role in most Mario platformers.
- True Final Boss: You can't face off against Bowser until you rescue all 126 hidden Toads and Luigi.
- Variable Mix: Depending on Peach's mood, the background music will either raise or lower in pitch and tempo.
- Wingding Eyes: Peach gets fire in her eyes when in "Anger" mode.