Peggle

Overview

Peggle Deluxe is a 2D game from the popular website and developer PopCap Games. Peggle combines game mechanics from the Japanese casino game Pachinko and the 1976 Atari arcade game Breakout. The gameplay of Peggle consists of players firing balls from the top of the stage at multi-colored pegs. When a ball contacts a peg, said peg lights up and is added to a combo meter. As the ball continues to bounce around the play area and hit more pegs the player receives more points. A turn is ended when the ball either falls through the bottom of the stage, or is caught by an osculating bucket and thus saved for reuse.

Gameplay

Types of Pegs

In Peggle Deluxe there are four different types of pegs. The orange peg is the object peg. In most instances a player will need to strike all oranges pegs to advance. The blue peg is a point peg, each blue peg you hit will add to your combo and score. Green pegs are power-up pegs. These pegs allow you use of the selected characters ability. Finally purple pegs are score point boost pegs that increase the number of points you get for each peg that the ball contacts after hitting the purple one.

Modes of Play

Peggle Deluxe has 4 modes of play. These modes are:

Adventure
Quick Play
Duel
Challenge

Adventure Mode

Adventure mode is where most new players will start learning the game's mechanics and is set up to take you though each of the game's boards and power ups. Adventure mode is divided into stages and levels. There are 10 stages and 5 levels to each stage. The object of level in Adventure Mode is simple, you must use your balls to hit all of the orange pegs, and you have ten balls to complete this task. Before each stage you are introduced to a new character via a small intro paragraph and picture. Each character has their own unique power-up that can be used to help players completed the levels.

The stages and levels are as follows:

Stage One: Bjorn

Peggleland
Slip and Slide
Bjorn's Gazebo
Das Bucket
Snow Day

Stage Two: Jimmy Lightning

Birdy's Crib
Buffalo Wings
Skate Park
Spiral of Doom
Mr. Peepers

Stage Three: Kat Tut

Scarab Crunch
Infinite Cheese
Ra Deal
Croco-Gator Pit
The Fever Level

Stage Four: Splork

The Amoeban
Last Flower
We Come in Peace
Maid in Space
Getting the Spare

Stage Five: Claude

Pearl Clam
Insane Aquarium
Tasty Waves
Our Favorite Eel
Love Story

Stage Six: Renfield Pumpkin

Waves
Spiderweb
Blockers
Baseball
Vermin

Stage Seven: Tula

Holland Oats
I Heart Flowers
Workin From Home
Tula's Ride
70 and Sunny

Stage Eight: Warren

Win a Monkey
Dog Pinball
Spin Again
Roll 'em
Five of a Kind

Stage Nine: Lord Cinderbottom

The Love Moat
Doom With a View
Rhombi
9 Luft Balloons
Twisted Sisters

Stage Ten: Master Hu

Paw reader
End of Time
Billions and Billions
Don't Panic
Beyond Reason

Quick Play Mode

Quick Play mode allows players to replay levels that they have previously unlocked though adventure mode. Quick play gives players the ability to use any power up on any stage. High scores are show for each level which promotes competition between players.

Duel Mode

In Duel Mode Players take turns shooting balls on the same level. The object is to score more points than your opponent, be it computer or real. Players are also penalized if they do not hit an orange peg on their turn.

Challenge Mode

Challenge Mode tasks the player with completing various goals that are different than Adventure Mode Goals. These goals are set on the same normal Adventure mode levels.

The Adventure Mode Goals are as follows:

35 Orange pegs (instead of the normal 25)
45 Orange pegs (instead of the normal 25)
55 Orange pegs (instead of the normal 25)
Score 300,000 points
Score 350,000 points
Score 400,000 points
Clear all pegs (orange and blue)
Beat CPU in duel (normal, hard & master)
Beat Multiple levels in a row (2,3,4,5,6)
Beat CPU in three level duel (normal, hard, master)
700,000 points over three levels
800,000 points over three levels
850,000 points over three levels
900,000 points over three levels
1,000,000 points over three levels
Beat a level with only 2 balls
Beat a level with only 1 ball
Beat 3 levels with only 10 balls
Beat 750,000 on any levels
Beat a ten random levels in a row

Once a player has completed all the challenges they are crowned the Peggle Master.

Characters

There are ten playable characters in Peggle, each with their own themed maps and special powers, which are normally activated when hitting a green peg.

Bjorn - Superguide : Creates a guide showing part of the initial bounce of the balls trajectory.
Jimmy Lightning - Multiball : Spawns another ball which falls at random.
Kat Tut - Pyramid : Attaches a Pyramid to the free ball bucket, which helps prevent the ball from falling off the screen.
Splork - Space Blast : Lights up all pegs in a small radius.
Claude - Flippers : Causes lobster claw shaped pinball flipper to appear on either side of the screen.
Renfield Pumpkin - Spooky Ball : The ball appears again at the top of the screen after falling through the bottom (Note: the first ball then cannot go through the ball bucket)
Tula - Flower Power : Lights up 1/5 of the orange pegs remaining in the stage.
Warren - Lucky Spin : Randomly activates 4 options; either Triple Score, Magic Hat (attaches a hat to the top of the ball, which can also light up pins), Extra Ball or any other random powerup from the other characters.
Lord Cinderbottom - Fireball : Replaces the ball with a fireball that can go through and eliminate all pegs in its path.
Master Hu - Zen Ball : Tweaks your shot for a better score.

Reception

Peggle Deluxe has been very well received by the gaming press. Critics cite its addictive nature and "feel-good" moments as strengths. It has a Metacritic score of 92, which is extremely high for a cheap, download only game. Even the usually harsh Yahtzee said that "I started playing around noon and emerged from my room sometime later to find the authorities had declared me legally dead" in reference to how addictive the gameplay was. PC Zone Magazine called Peggle "Addictive and happy", which seemed to be a pretty good sum-up of the general reception.

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Game Name	Peggle
Platform(s)	PlayStation Network (PS3) Xbox Live Marketplace PlayStation Network (PSP) iPhone iPod PC Mac Zeebo Android
Publisher(s)	PopCap Games, Inc.
Developer(s)	PopCap Games, Inc. Q Entertainment
Genres	Add a new genre Block-Breaking Puzzle Strategy Pinball
Themes	Add a new theme Fantasy Egyptian Abstract
Original US Release	Feb. 27, 2007 need a fuzzy date?
Original US Release	know the real date?
Aliases	Peggle Deluxe
ESRB	ESRB: E

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