Addictive fun in a new shape (Peggle Deluxe (PC))

Member Name: daniash

Product:	Peggle Deluxe (PC)
Date:	15/05/09 (18 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Insanely addictive and polished look

Disadvantages: Some side challenges are just impossible and you'll stop trying.

When me and my friend came back from a long plane journey and were completely jet-lagged and lethargic and 4pm felt like breakfast time, She suggested we download Peggle and play it in bed. She described it as "this downloadable game that is so addictive". That was the first time I'd heard of that game and I was expecting to see some crude, exploitative Flash game that became infamous for all the wrong reasons... such is the nature of a lot of these sudden internet phenomena. Of course my prejudice was not justified in this case.

Peggle is a downloadable game and quite a cheap one to buy if you like the trial, but the quality of production is the same or even superior to any games you'll find on store shelves. What makes it a success, though, is that it fulfills perfectly what I consider the criteria for a smash hit game - Original, Dead Simple and Addictive.

The game screen is a 2D arrangement of "pegs", little balls that clutter the stage. Your goal is to clear as many of them as you can, by shooting a small pinball from the top of the screen and letting it bounce off the pegs, making them disappear. The ball is subject to all the normal laws of gravity and physics (weird power-ups aside) and the interactions between your ball and the pegs are very realistic. At the bottom of the screen, a moving bucket allows you to collect your ball and recycle it if it lands inside - if not, you will have lost it and your reservoir of available balls decreases. If you run out of balls before you have cleared enough pegs, it's game over.

It has many elements in common with pinballs and videogames of the past, but it also has many of its own original ideas that make it distinctively "Peggle" and not "another Breakout clone". The concept is enjoyable enough, but on top of that the developers have coupled it with equally original and immersive graphics and stereo sounds, a hefty amount of original artwork for characters and backgrounds, and a package that makes it feel more of a coherent experience and less of a mindless bunch of mini-games. The gameplay is the same on each level, it's not "a bit of this and a bit of that", but the level design is so clever and varied that it doesn't get old, and the amount of levels available is very high.
When you've cleared all the levels, you can play them again trying to achieve secondary (and harder) goals, most of which you'll never manage to do as they quickly escalate to insane levels of difficulty. But the main level progression gently increases the challenge without ever getting impossible, and it's a joy to work through.

Summary: All good things are the simplest ones and this game proves it.