Bowser has been capturing poor Princess Peach for ages now, always leaving Mario and Luigi with the rescue duties with each passing game. Finally Nintendo has decided to pull a role reversal and put Princess Peach in the spotlight in her own game, as the heroine out to save Mario and Luigi for once, and the result is the thoroughly entertaining Super Princess Peach for the DS.

Chronicling this change in format is a plot that sees Bowser finally smartening up to the fact that capturing Mario and Luigi is a much better plan than always preying on Peach, leaving the dynamic plumbing duo free to thwart his evil kidnapping schemes time and time again. To enact this plan, Bowser sets out for Vibe Island, a small island not too far away from Mushroom Kingdom that houses the magical Vibe Scepter, which he uses to capture Mario, Luigi and the Toads. Fortunately for Princess Peach, she was out for a nice walk during the kidnapping run on Mushroom Kingdom, and upon returning to the ransacked castle she, in cahoots with her magical, talking parasol (or umbrella) named Perry, venture off to Vibe Island to save their friends.

As Bowser soon finds out, when armed with her umbrella and ever-changing emotions, Princess Peach is no broad to mess with. Besides containing some rather obvious sexist undertones in playing to the female audience, the game, oddly enough, really doesn't even seem to focus much on getting to know Peach as a lead character. Once you start playing, the realization quickly sets in that the storyline centers more around Perry than anything else, and because of this I really just didn't find myself caring about the plot at all. It's Peach's game, so why are all the cut scenes about Perry? I don't know… it just doesn't make sense to me. But oh well, it's not like the story matters that much in a game like this anyway.

What does make sense to me, though, is the fun-filled, old school-meets-new-school 2D platforming gameplay. Very much stylized after the classic Super Mario Bros. titles of yore, Super Princess Peach plays and feels like a typical Mario platformer at its heart. Through eight conventionally themed worlds (volcano, tropical, haunted mansion, snow, etc.), Peach hops, breaks blocks, collects coins and bashes the familiar Mario universe baddies (Goombas, Koopas, Hammer Bros, Piranha Plants, Boos, Chain Chomps, etc.) just as Mario and Luigi have always done before her. With umbrella in hand, however, Peach can do a whole lot more than even her usual plumber heroes can, by utilizing Perry's special abilities. She can use her umbrella to whack enemies, briefly float over long pits, sit in it to float on water like a boat, slide along ropes using it like a lift, fire charged projectile shots and even turn it into a submarine, which you manually control in short underwater sections and fire at enemies by blowing into the microphone. In between stages you can use collected coins to buy some of these new abilities too, along with other helpful items and collectible goodies. All of this simply speaks to the appealing variety the game has to offer, and it doesn't stop there!

Entering in the core of the arguably sexist undertone, Princess Peach is somewhat of an emotional basket case, and as the player you get to tap into her varying emotions at the quick tap of a stylus (or your thumb, which works easiest). While playing, the bottom touch-screen displays four differently colored hearts, each representing an emotion and respective special power. These powers, known as Vibe Powers, come in four emotions: Joy, Rage, Gloom and Calm. Activating Joy enables Peach to float through the air like a cyclone, which is useful for ascending high ledges and spinning to clear certain obstacles. The Rage emotion causes Peach to become engulfed in flames, granting her the ability to burn bridges, melt ice or simply wreak havoc on nearby foes. Clicking on the Gloom emotion, on the other hand, taps into Peach's sadness and causes her to cry, with two giant streams pouring from her eyes, to make plant sprouts grow, put out fires, turn water wheels and freeze certain surfaces in cold environments - she even becomes super fast when in Gloom mode, allowing her to speed over shaky platforms before they fall. Finally comes the Calm emotional power, which plainly and simply perks Peach up and enables her to regenerate health (represented by hearts). It's a very clever little system that brings the touch-screen functionality of the DS to the forefront and there are plenty of inventive puzzles to figure out using the unique abilities offered by each emotion.

Vibe Powers are especially emphasized during the game's eight boss battles, which come in the familiar array of giant Piranha Plants, King Boo, Wiggler, Bowser himself and other familiar baddies. Unfortunately, before each boss a hint box essentially explains the strategy you need to take into the impending boss encounter, and that in a nutshell is Super Princess Peach's only true fault - it is just too damn easy. Now sure, it's targeted more towards younger, casual gamers of the female persuasion, and thus the minimal difficulty meets the wide accessibility requirement. However, it's good fun for any platformer fan, so the simplicity is likely to put off more players than it will attract. It's far from the easiest game in the world, as there are plenty of tricky jumping puzzles and a few bosses that put up a good fight (even with the hints), but the overall low level of difficulty is the only lackluster ingredient keeping Super Princess Peach from the DS's list of elite titles.

While the game does stray too far into the easy end of the spectrum, the immense replay value definitely makes up for this enough to wholeheartedly recommend it. Each of the eight worlds are comprised of five worlds a piece, in addition to the world-clearing boss fights, and completing the game on the first shot through takes a good eight to ten hours. After taking Bowser down and watching the credits roll, the game still continues on with extra unlockable stages in each world. Additionally, numerous side touch-screen and microphone-based mini-games can be purchased and found hidden throughout certain levels, along with puzzles pieces for a variety of special jigsaw puzzles to put together and music tracks to play in the Music Room.

As you play through it, you will certainly notice the crisp beauty Super Princess Peach showcases in its exuberantly colorful and cute 2D visuals, and the loveable, nostalgic charm of the Mario-centric background music and audio effects. Even though this is Peach's game, the Mario charm shines through in spades via the tremendous audiovisual production that Nintendo has put into effect.

This same charm permeates every aspect of the experience, and this is why Super Princess Peach, as a whole, is such a wonderful DS gem that I support without a moment's hesitation. I would've loved to see Nintendo challenge gamers more with a stiffer difficulty (or an option at least), but in the end there's way too much enjoyment to be had here to get too bent out of shape about it being a bit easy for experienced gamers. If you own a DS then don't hesitate in making Super Princess Peach the latest addition to your portable arsenal.

Reviewed by Matt Litten for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).