Parent's Guide: Super Princess Peach - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Super Princess Peach is a 2D platform game on the DS, which centres around new heroine Princess Peach, as she sets out on a quest to rescue her beloved Mario from Bowser, by trekking all over Vibe Island, seeking out captured mushroom men, and collecting coins as she makes her way over chasms, spikes and other pitfalls.

With a slower, more puzzle oriented approach than the Mario games, there's much more of a focus here on using your brain to overcome obstacles than bouncing on enemy's heads. Peach's main powers are her emotions, which can be activated at a poke of the touch screen, and can be used to solve the game's puzzles. With Rage, Gloom, Joy and Calm to choose from, each has their own special effect - gloom makes you cry, which can be used to destroy sand monsters, rage turns you into a fiery, angry woman who can melt ice and burn wood by simply standing in their vicinity, while calm can be used to help regain health.

Considering the game's target audience of young girls and more 'casual' female DS owners, Super Princess Peach is also much easier to play than the Mario games, with a substantially more forgiving difficulty level, and plenty of hints to help you along your way. If your kid struggles with the other Mario games, and tends to find platformers a bit tricky to get into, this could be a great place for them to start. In fact, if they've played any of the Kirby games, they'll be on familiar ground here, as not only does the game have a similar difficulty level, but it plays in a similar way too, with Peach's moods similar to Kirby's transformations, and an emphasis on collectables and exploring multiple paths through each level.

If you do start to struggle at any point, a trip to the in-game shop may be in order, where you can spend the coins you've picked up in the levels to give Peach more hearts, a bigger bar for fuelling her Vibe Powers or some better attacks for her parasol. There's also blocks scattered around the levels before each boss fight or at points where you need to use new moves that talk you through what you need to do - although as it isn't voiced, it will require some reading.

As a Mario style platform game, Super Princess Peach contains nothing for parents to worry about. There's no gore, guns or expletives - just plenty of pink, flowers and a talking umbrella. There are enemies to defeat, but that mostly involves bopping them with your brolly or jumping on their heads, after which they'll simply vanish.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Nintendo DS