Nintendo has a history of being unusually tight-lipped about disclosing the names of actors, developers, and directors behind its games until after their official release. This tradition of sorts also includes its upcoming Peach-centric action-adventure romp, Princess Peach: Showtime, which releases on the Nintendo Switch on March 22.
But, after rolling the credits on Princess Peach: Showtime (read our review!), IGN has confirmed that Goemon designer Etsunobu Ebisu is credited as its producer and director and Good-Feel served as the game’s developer.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Ebisu’s involvement in Princess Peach: Showtime marks the first time in over 25 years that he’s directed a video game. The last game Ebisu directed was 1997’s Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon for the Nintendo 64. Aside from serving as the director for a bulk of the Goemon series, Ebisu also worked as a programmer and game designer for Konami on Castlevania and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness before becoming the CEO of Good-Feel in 2005. Good-Feel was the developer behind Nintendo games like Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi’s Wooly World, and Wario Land: Shake It, to name a few.
In any other circumstance, Ebisu and Game-Feel’s illustrious assortment of gaming credits would warrant a mention in the announcement or reveal trailer of Princess Peach: Showtime to drum up hype for players —
familiar or otherwise — with their previous works. However, Nintendo instead opted to keep this piece of information a secret — going so far as to embargo information from Princess Peach: Showtime’s credits and preventing anyone reviewing the game from revealing its co-creators in their reviews — until after the game’s launch.
Last year, Nintendo inversely created an air of secrecy surrounding Mario’s new voice actor following the retirement of long-time Mario voice actor Charles Martinet. The company was also cagey about revealing the developers behind the highly-anticipated remake of Super Mario RPG.
In our review, we wrote “Princess Peach: Showtime! is a simple, cheery romp with a variety of neat styles and a fun theater-inspired setting.”
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
