Thoughts on Super Princess Peach pt. 3

Well, that ice world was a slog.

I just reached World 7, Giddy Sky, in Super Princess Peach, and it's a welcome change of pace from the last world. First of all, why does every platformer have to have some stupid ice world to traverse? It was old in Super Mario Bros. 2, and has not gotten any better since. I mean I understand the developers want to create some sort of tension between players and their comfort with the controls, but there has got to be a better way. "Woo, slippery!" Always fun when you see that. And Super Princess Peach put it's ice level near the end of the game, so they can put more difficult ice platforming in there than they could during the easier portions of the game.

At least the boss was a pushover so I could move on.

In terms of puzzles, they aren't getting much more difficult. I've found as time has gone on, it's become increasingly difficult to keep coming back to Super Princess Peach - I think this is due to the lack of interesting puzzles. You see, I could deal with mediocre platforming so long as the extra stuff, the puzzle parts, were interesting, but they really aren't. What few changes have been made over the course of the game are beaten into the player's skull that as soon as he sees the beginning of one type of puzzle, he can almost immediately solve it and move on.

Compare this to Warioland's puzzles, and you'll see a much better difficulty curve. They start out relatively easy, but by the end of the game (I'm speaking mostly of 2 and 3, here), you're practically pulling your hair out trying to figure out how to solve puzzles. This is good, though. I would much rather try to do that than to simply blow through some lame attempt at a puzzle easily.

The continued nods to Super Mario World are keeping me entertained, though. The Mario World-styled Hammer Bros. are in it! This is sweet.

Going back and forth between Super Princess Peach and Fallout 3 is pretty jarring, to be honest, but I'm enjoying both overall. Anyway, my next Super Princess Peach post will likely be the last, since I'm a world and a half away from what I presume to be the end.