by PopCap games
Peggle is a multi-platform casual game that allows players to drop a ball from the top of the screen, watching it travel down the screen, hitting coloured objects. Doesn't sound like much fun, but wait till you've tried it. Peggle is done by PopCap Games, which also did Plants vs Zombies.
The objective of the game is to hit all the orange coloured balls, or in Peggle lingo, 'pegs'. In the entire screen, there are laid before your very eyes a pool of blue and orange pegs. Players control the starting shot of the ball, and after the initial shot is made, the ball will travel down the screen, its movement and direction dependent on gravity and collisions with the pegs. The pegs are not placed randomly, but is based on the background picture. The placement tends to follow how the picture looks like. At the very bottom of the screen is a little container bucket that glides to the extreme left and right edges, and if the ball drops into the bucket, the player will be rewarded a free ball. There is also one purple peg, which will increase the player's score with each consecutive green/orange peg hit.
In addition to the basic core gameplay mentioned above, there is also some variations to it. Players can choose if he wants to play in 'campaign' mode, or 'free play', or try out for the 'challenges'. In campaign mode, the players start off with level 1-11, and end with a level that approximates 10-5. There are 5 stages per level, and each level differs in difficulty. In each level, players control a 'character', which has different super powers. These superpowers are attained by hitting a green coloured peg. There are 2 green pegs in each level. In 'Free play', players are free to choose any level and any character they want. In 'Challenges', players are given the same set of levels to choose from, but this time, they are given challenges, such as starting the game with only half the allocated balls, attaining a certain score, etc.
Art is definitely good, I like how the whole game is very colourful, which helps to grab your attention. It is very bright, almost neon-ish. Everything is done up in a cartoonish manner, which is directed toward the casual gaming audience. Whenever the player completes a level, A bright orangey colourful 'EXTREME FEVER' pops up, which I like a lot. Helps to make you feel happy. What I also like is the little nuances in the game that one may miss. For instance, while the game is loading up, the text that traditionally shows what is being loaded says something to the extent of 'preparing tea', 'tucking in kids to bed', etc. Together with sound design, it has a very carnival-ish feel to it.
Sound is good, there is a neat sound feature in which enhances the gameplay. When the ball first launches off from the player, the sound with each collision increases from low pitch to a very high pitch. So the more balls you hit, the higher the pitch of the sound. This helps to enhance the gameplay because the sound foreshadows the next ball being hit, i.e. the player knows the next sound the game will play when the ball hits another peg.
I first got exposed to this game when I was interning at a games company and this level designer started playing it on the big screen. Everyone started laughing at him because it looked sissy. A week after, the whole team started playing it religiously and that level designer whined of how they made fun of him last week. One of the initial comments 'everyone' made was that the game didn't allow for much interaction. The only thing the player does in the game is to release the first shot, and watch the ball go down the screen, much like pachinko or pinball. However, I realised that this is very important because the game relied a lot on luck, which then makes the game addictive. Players won't be able to know which orange peg will ultimately get hit. The same scenario happened with my mother, who plays this game every night religiously for the past few months, especially after I got Peggle Nights, its sequel, for her. She, too, initially complained when I showed her the game that it lacked user interaction.
Rating: 9.5/10
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