Princess Peach: Showtime features a cast of mostly new faces, but would have been the perfect chance to bring back one of her closest companions.
Missed opportunity to bring back Toadsworth in Princess Peach Showtime, excluding key Mario series character. Game captures theater aesthetic, but lacks detail present in other Mario spin-offs. Toadsworth could have been easily incorporated into the game’s story, given his history with Peach.
Princess Peach: Showtime has been a long time coming for fans of Nintendo’s iconic princess, as her previous starring role came nearly 20 years ago when Super Princess Peach was released in 2006. Bringing Peach back into the spotlight with Princess Peach: Showtime has been a great way to help develop her own identity as a character separate from Mario and build upon her role as princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. However, Princess Peach: Showtime misses the opportunity to include one of Peach’s most notable companions, who has recently been missing from the Mario series.
While Princess Peach: Showtime is a spin-off of the Mario series, the game’s cast is largely made up of new characters like the Theets and the Sour Bunch. The exception to this rule is the Toads that accompany Peach to Sparkle Theater at the start of the game, and plan to watch the performance with her before Grape and the Sour Bunch take over the theater. Given the inclusion of Toads as the only real core Mario series representation in the game, Princess Peach: Showtime should have brought back Toadsworth as a key character in the game.
Longtime Mario fans are likely familiar with Princess Peach’s loyal steward, Toadsworth, who first made his appearance in Super Mario Sunshine on the GameCube. Toadsworth only plays a minor role in this game, appearing alongside Peach to help prove Mario’s innocence after he is accused of painting graffiti around Isle Delfino, but it’s clear he is a caring and trustworthy advisor to Peach. Toadsworth would continue to appear in other Mario titles after Super Mario Sunshine, including the Mario & Luigi series, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the Mario Party series, and several Mario sports spin-off titles.
Toadsworth’s first appearance as a playable character came in 2005’s Mario Superstar Baseball for the GameCube, where he was a member of Peach’s team, the Peach Monarchs.
Unfortunately, Toadsworth has been largely sidelined in recent Mario titles, with his latest appearances coming in re-releases of older titles like Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey on the 3DS in 2019, and Super Mario 3D All-Stars in 2020. Toadsworth is set to reappear in the upcoming Switch remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but he hasn’t had an original appearance in the series since 2013’s Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. Given his presence in Peach’s last solo adventure, Super Princess Peach, it would have made sense to bring Toadsworth back in Princess Peach: Showtime.
Toadsworth could have been an easy character to incorporate into Princess Peach: Showtime’s story given his close association with the princess and history as her travel companion. Rather than having some generic Toads accompany Peach to Sparkle Theater, it could have been Toadsworth who joined Peach on her outing, just as he did when the princess traveled to Isle Delfino in Super Mario Sunshine. Doing so would not have changed the story in any way and would have given Toadsworth the chance to reappear in the franchise after such a long absence, even if it was just for a brief cameo role.
Another way Toadsworth could have been featured in Princess Peach: Showtime is as a character that Peach needed to rescue from Grape and the Sour Bunch. Perhaps Toadsworth could have accompanied Peach to Sparkle Theater, only to be captured by Grape after she and the Sour Bunch gain control of the venue, prompting Peach to battle her way through the foes to save Toadsworth. This direction would have given Toadsworth a more important role in the story while also turning the trope of the damsel in distress on its head as Peach worked to save her trusted companion and advisor.
