Is Becoming a "Peggle Grand Master" Worth the Time?
Peggle is a game that can really be played by anyone who is given a mouse, gamepad, or iphone. The reason is because there are not a whole lot of people in this world who hasn't seen one of the Price is Right's most famous games, Plinko. No, the Price is Right did not invent this game concept, but it's certainly the one thing that has made the idea so mainstream and popular.
Peggle follows that same concept, originally started by Pachinko. Every level in Peggle has a different layout of pegs, that you have to attempt to clear out as many of them as possible by strategically aiming your ball and shooting it out of a cannon, making it bounce of walls and other pegs, earning points for every single peg you hit and receiving multipliers if you hit a high amount of pegs. That's the basics of the gameplay, but some things are thrown into the game to change it up a little bit. "Voids" are thrown in to the game, moving your ball to somewhere else on the screen if your ball makes contact with it. Also, they'll just throw in circular objects into the level that do nothing but allow your ball to bounce off of them.
Your goal is to take out every single orange peg in the stage. Other color pegs include purple, blue, and green. Purple giving you a point boost, allowing you to earn extra balls to use in the level your currently. Blue pegs are the normal pegs, the ones you see the most, and do nothing special. The green ones are the funnest. They give you a special power, helping you out a little bit. Depending on the stage your in, the special power you receive will vary. Each group of stages has a different animal (creature, rather) that, well, doesn't really do anything besides sit at the top of the screen. But they do change the power you get from hitting a green peg, for example the dragon gives you a fire ball, which will just destroy any peg it comes in contact with instantly. Other powers include the Lobsters which will put 2 claws at the bottom of the screen allowing you to hit your ball back up towards the top of the screen, which kind of turn the game into pinball a little bit.
The game is very phsyics based. The physics are very basic, but there is nothing wrong with them. The ball flies around as it should, and it is actually entertaining watching the ball bounce off walls and pegs, and getting lucky as hell and knicking that last orange peg after hitting plenty of different objects is pretty satisfiying. Luck does play a big part in this game, sure, you could play the game enough to learn how exactly the ball bounces and master the physics completely, but really, it's a lot of luck.
The game can be finished quickly, because the game's adventure mode only offers 55 levels, all of which can be quickly completeled, usually in under 2 minutes. Until around the 45 level mark, you really won't find a challenge at all. Though when you do get around there, it gets pretty damn difficult. The last few levels are pretty much hell and probably take a ton of time to complete, not that that's a good thing. Playing the same level more than a few times quickly gets boring, if you get a lot of luck, you'll clear it. If you don't get lucky, you won't clear it. That's the bottom line of the last few levels.
The game offers a few others mode, namely Duel, Challenge, and Quickplay. Duel allowing you to take on a friend, seeing who can earn the most points. Challenge adds a special objective to levels, whether it be adding double the orange pegs, or making you earn an absurd amounts of points to beat the level. There are some other crazy challenges too, such as clearing 3 levels with only 10 balls, beating a certain amount of levels in a row, and some other difficult tasks, though I had no motivation at all to attempt to tackle these challenges, since by the time I was done with the game I didn't feel like playing much more. Quickplay just allows you to play levels you've already beaten.
Peggle does do a whole hell of a lot of hand holding, clearly trying to aid to the casual gamer. When you don't hit a peg at all the game will "flip a coin" and you have a chance to earn a free ball back. Also, at the bottom of the level, scrolling back and forth, is a bucket, and if you bounce one of your balls into the bucket you'll earn another.
Final Decision
While watching the games physics do it's work can be slightly fun, all you really do is shoot a ball, and you watch the game play itself. It becomes dull and boring by the time you approach the end of the game. I believe this game is the weak point of the game, there is not a whole lot of interaction. Peggle can be entertaining in small doses, but after failing the same level just twice, you'll want to quit. Watching a game play itself just isn't fun for very long.
