Close to a full year since Peggle 2 came out last December shortly after the Xbox One launch, PopCap’s whimsical blend of pachinko, pinball, billiards and Breakout is finally leaving behind its timed Xbox console exclusivity run for a release on PlayStation 4.
October 14th has been pegged as the PS4 launch date for Peggle 2. If you like breaking pegs, bouncing balls, rainbows, unicorns and things that just plain make you smile, Peggle 2 is the game to get.
Two of the most addictive forces in the gaming universe collide once again in Peggle – World of Warcraft Edition, a new standalone freebie version of Peggle featuring 10 new levels starring Peggle masters Bjorn the Unicorn and Splork with background art created by Blizzard artists, 10 new “super-extra-hard” challenges, and a Duel mode for players to put their Peggle skills to the test against a friend or CPU opponent.
It’s free, it’s standalone, it’s only for PC, and you don’t even have to be a WoW fanatic to enjoy it. Download it for yourself at PopCap’s promo page, and if for some reason you don’t own the full versions you should think about getting them now as PopCap is also currently holding a 50% off sale of the PC/Mac versions of Peggle and Peggle Nights. Or you can get the Peggle Pack including both games for only $14.95. The sale ends July 17th, so act fast.
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I have a confession to make. Until a couple weeks ago, I had never played Peggle before. I know, crazy, right? Peggle has only been like the biggest thing in casual gaming over the past couple of years. But what can I say; it never really caught my eye. Amidst PopCap’s ongoing three months of Peggle spring fever, the puzzle game hit has made its debut on the DS in Peggle Dual Shot, a jam-packed compilation of adapted ports of the original Peggle and its recent sequel Peggle Nights, which Mike reviewed earlier today. Playing puzzlers on the DS is more up my alley, so I decided to finally give this Peggle thing a shot. Boy am I glad I did!
After hours and hours of Peggling it up on my DS, I can certainly see why it has become such a sensation. Peggle is essentially an amalgamation of pinball, pachinko, Arkanoid and Plinko from ‘The Price is Right’ – four of the greatest games known to man. That may sound like a complicated mishmash of ideas there, but the game really couldn’t be any simpler (or more addictive).
At the top of the screen is a ball launcher which you must use to shoot marbles at orange pegs mixed in with a bunch of board-clogging blue pegs arranged in various patterns in the colorful field of play below. The objective is to clear out all of these orange pegs with only a set number of marbles available to you at the start of each puzzle – though you can earn additional free balls by achieving high scores and/or if the bucket that scrolls across the bottom of the screen happens to catch your marble upon its descent. So in a nutshell, you aim and shoot your marble with the stylus (or D-pad and face buttons if you so choose) and cross your fingers as you watch it ping around amongst all the pegs, hopefully taking out a bunch of orange pegs as it gradually works its way to the bottom.
Throughout the Adventure mode you are tutored by the great Peggle Masters, cute animal creatures who provide special magical powers to aid in your Peggle quest. These powers, which include things like a fireball that plows straight through all pegs in its path, pinball flippers you can use to help keep marbles in play longer than normal, and bombs that blow up all nearby pegs, manifest themselves as two green pegs in each puzzle. Purple pegs pop up in random places at the start of every turn as well, and by hitting five you enter a new DS-exclusive bonus room called the Bonus Underground. In this area there are gems floating around a series of bumpers, and by tapping the screen you’re able to make the bumpers vibrate and launch the marble around the screen to collect as many gems as possible. More gems equals more points, and more points equals more free balls.
Reliance on catching lucky bounces to complete puzzles, especially as they become more challenging, can become a bit too prevalent at times — at least for my tastes — but for the most part becoming a successful Peggle-meister requires learning how to visualize trajectory before launching your marble into play. So overall I’d say the balance between skill and luck is pretty good. Casual gamers can enjoy lobbing their marbles around at random hoping to get lucky, while more seasoned gamers can spend time mastering the physics and continuously striving to top their high scores.
Now, I’ve read quite a bit of petty whining around the Net about Dual Shot’s price. At $30 it is indeed the priciest version of Peggle, but before skimming past the game based on its price you need to remember that you’re getting two games in one here. If you were to go buy Peggle and Peggle Nights separately on PC or Mac you’d be paying the same price. And with Dual Shot you’re getting all the same content plus an additional 10 exclusive levels designed by Lumines and Meteos developer Q Entertainment. So tallying it all up, this game packs over 200 puzzle levels, a turn-based Duel mode you can play with a friend or against the CPU, and the option to send a trial version to another local DS, not to mention the fresh and addictive gameplay you get to enjoy in all of these levels and modes. I’d say that’s more than enough content to justify the price.
Pros:
+ Very simple yet very addictive gameplay
+ Charming graphics and sound effects
+ Two game’s worth of content equates to high replay value
+ Breath of fresh air for the genre; it’s not just another match-three puzzler
Cons:
– Seems a bit too luck-based at times
Game Info:
Platform: DS
Publisher: PopCap Games
Developer: Q Entertainment
Release Date: 2/27/09
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Players: 1-2
Puzzle games are an interesting genre. Hardcore gamers have historically eschewed them as being ‘too casual’ until recently, but even before excellent puzzle games started hitting the Nintendo DS, gamers who have used non-PC devices such as PDA’s have found them to be great quick-play diversions. There are pretty much two types of puzzle games: complex brain-twisters that force you to think for a long time, and simple games that have some sort of hook that keep you playing. There are also story-based games such as Puzzle Quest, but those are still just simple puzzle games wrapped up in a story of some sort. Peggle Nights represents yet another hybrid – at its’ core it is a simple puzzle game, but it is interspersed with characters and some minor story-like elements that give it an added dimension.
Honestly, they didn’t need to worry about adding too much in this sequel – the original Peggle was a complete blast and quite addictive, and they’ve enhanced it enough to make the budget price a no-brainer. Fortunately what they did add works very nicely without being a distraction. The between-level banter is quick and gets you going from one scene to the next, and the characters actually add something concrete to the experience. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
Peggle was released for the PC in early 2007, and moved to the iPod (not iPhone) later that year. At the same time, it was becoming more and more popular, topping many ‘most addictive games’ lists, and got a special limited release as part of the Orange Box in late 2007. Peggle Nights was released for PC in late 2008 before coming to the Mac, and a new Peggle game has recently come to the Nintendo DS just as the original is released on XBOX Live Arcade. So why is this game so addictive? I’ll tell you after just … one … more … level …
OK, I’m back. The concept of Peggle is simple: you control a marble launcher at the middle of the top of the screen, and you need to hit all of the orange pegs to clear them off the board before you run out of marbles.
That’s it … the rest is just extra stuff!
Of course it is that extra stuff that transforms the game from a cute idea into a completely addictive time-sink. For starters, even on the first board you will want to utilize some basic physics to bounce the marble around and clear out as many orange pegs as possible in a single turn. Pretty soon it will be a necessity – the orange pegs are scattered in a field with useless blue pegs and other pegs with special purposes that get revealed gradually.
Fortunately, physics is fully at play here – balls take a trajectory that makes sense and bounce with a realistic speed and angle. This makes it possible to work to chain together a series of hits from a single ball. Gravity can be your friend or your enemy, and no matter what you do you will always end up feeling either blessed or cursed by fortune. One new gameplay addition is that you can use the walls for bank shots now, adding another bit of strategy to your arsenal.
Aside from the orange and blue pegs, there are purple pegs that give some sort of bonus, and green pegs that unleash a ‘magic power’ based on whatever character is active at the time. These range from showing you the trajectory of your shots to adding another ball to shooting a ball of fire through all pegs and so on. These power combine with the bonuses to very often save you as you dwindle to your last ball with way too many orange pegs remaining. Then there is the bucket – the bucket moves back and forth along the bottom the screen the whole time, and since you know that eventually your ball will reach the bottom, you hope it lands in the bucket. Getting a ball in the bucket gives a free ball – once again this will save you many times over the course of the game.
Technically the game is not very impressive – but that is to be expected for a budget priced casual game. The boards are done at a fairly low detail level and the music is sparse and repetitive. But it is all varied enough to never get annoying, and the main areas of focus – the pegs and balls and special effects – are all well done. Even more so, the special sound effects add a lot to the fun – each ‘magic power’ has its’ own musical theme, and the bombast when you clear a level never gets old!
Peggle Nights has an adventure mode with 60 levels, 60 challenges, and a two-player Duel mode. This can go by fairly quickly if you sit down for extended gaming sessions, but the game is meant to be played a bit at a time – it is a casual game after all! There are several hours of new gameplay here and loads of replayability.
It would be fair to say that Peggle Nights is not a huge update to the original … but then if you are looking for it to suddenly have 1080p graphics and a fully licensed soundtrack you have arrived at the wrong game. Peggle Nights takes a wonderful concept, gives it a few tweaks, changes things up a little bit – and completely refreshes the content. I cannot imagine a more welcome sequel from this sort of game. Normally I would say “there is a demo, try that”, but in this case I recommend any fan of puzzle games to just go buy it for their respective platform (PC, Mac, DS or XBOX360) NOW!
Pros:
+ Simple and addictive gameplay
+ Plenty of replayability
Cons:
– Uninspired graphics
– Music gets tiresome
– Ends too soon!
Game Info:
Platform: Reviewed on Mac, also available for PC
Publisher: PopCap Games
Developer: PopCap Games
Release Date: 02/25/09
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Players: 1-2
Over the next three months, PopCap Games is going to be all about Peggle, Peggle and more Peggle. The three-month Peggle celebration begins with today’s shipping of Peggle Dual Shot for the DS and continues throughout March with new Peggle adaptations for iPhone and Xbox Live Arcade and a 75% discount on the PC download version (you can get the full game now for only $5!). Then in April, Peggle Nights hits store shelves for PC (it came out as a digital download for Mac last week) along with the four-game Xbox 360 compilation PopCap Arcade Volume 2, which of course stars Peggle. And finally in May, Peggle will spread its addictive charms to Android smartphones. That’s a lot of platforms, though I wonder why PopCap isn’t spreading Peggle love to the PlayStation Network…
But that’s still not all. Today also comes with the launch of a Peggle art contest and the release of a free level add-on pack for Peggle Nights. Damn, that’s a lot of Peggle!
]]>“Peggle is a pretty special little game, and it deserves all the attention to detail and high touch polish we’ve given it,” said PopCap co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Jason Kapalka. “We’ve gone beyond just porting Peggle and have really opened up new territory for the game with the iPhone’s input and control mechanisms and by partnering with Q Entertainment on the development of Peggle Dual Shot for Nintendo DS. Add to that the cool multiplayer modes in the Xbox 360 and XBLA versions, and these are really adaptations of the game designed to tap the unique aspects of each respective device and service. It’s been really cool to see how the game has evolved and expanded.”