Nintendo hasn’t announced which of its many development studios or partners is making Princess Peach: Showtime, this spring’s biggest new Nintendo Switch game, and doesn’t seem likely to before it debuts later this month.
“The development team will be credited in the game credits,” a Nintendo spokesperson simply told me today when I enquired which developer had made the game.
There’s no reason why Nintendo has to say who has made the game, of course, but fans have said it feels odd that the answer remains a mystery, just a few weeks away from Princess Peach: Showtime!’s 22nd March debut, after press have already played a preview build of the game
Datamined files from that demo point to Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Yoshi’s Crafted World developer Good-Feel being behind Princess Peach: Showtime – something Nintendo itself could not confirm when asked today. Founded in Japan in 2005, Good-Feel has developed exclusively for Nintendo hardware, and has regularly worked on the company’s main franchises.
The overall situation feels similar to when Nintendo declined to announce last year’s replacement voice actor for Mario, following the retirement Charles Martinet from the role. Likewise, Nintendo did not confirm said voice actor (Kevin Afghani) was also now the moustache behind Wario for last November’s Wario Ware: Smooth Moves.
“Character voice actors for Mario and/or Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder will be credited in the game credits, so please wait for the game to be released,” a Nintendo spokesperson told Eurogamer at the time.
On the one hand, it’s understandable perhaps that Nintendo might simply want its games to do the talking, free of any preconceptions or information coming to light ahead of launch. On the other, it’s an unusual level of opaqueness for a game developer not be acknowledged – and ultimately it just fuels speculation around something that seems unlikely to have otherwise been of note.
“It offers gentle adventure for younger Mario movie fans,” I wrote of the game after going hands-on with Princess Peach: Showtime! last month. “At its best, there are shades of Luigi’s Mansion 3 here – in the themed stages lying behind different doors, accessible from the theatre’s multi-level lobby hub – and even Paper Mario, as elements of each stage are constructed with charm from tactile scenery, such as wooden prop grass and trees.”