5th game played so far
Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 2007
Developer: PopCap Games
Publisher: PopCap Games
PopCap have made a household name for themselves by developing games that are mindnumbingly addictive. This is because the concepts employed are so simple, yet profitable, it makes you wonder how other game developers have restrained themselves from setting fire to PopCap headquarters.
Peggle is a prime example of this. It employs similar principles to bagatelle and pinball whereby you try to strategically release a ball in such a fashion as to hit as many of the orange pegs as you can. Each level ends when all of these has been hit…. simple enough right? In order to up the ante PopCap decided to equip Peggle with a number of colourful characters (including a French lobster and a rather creepy unicorn) and the ‘Ode To Joy’ in each level’s pay-off.
Our playthrough
In total there are 50 levels of this puzzle game. So the only logical course of action was to play our way through… I mean it’s not as if either of us could tear ourselves away from the screen without much prior prodding. Of course, after that there are the challenges, which is doing the same thing, but more challenging (Yes!). This can be hitting more orange peggles, getting a certain score or beating your opponent.
Our Thoughts
One word: Addictive. Absolutely addictive in every possible way and I think that because it relies so much on a mix of skill and luck whilst being incredibly accessible to all ages.
In that sense, it goes back to older days, where you get the sort of games that are easy to learn, but hard to master. Like Tetris and Asteroids. And all those other games you used to love but have now forgotten. Many of which we will possibly be covering in this blog. I hope so, just not too many, or else this will take too long.
I really loved all the colourful characters. The zen owl, the creepy unicorn and the Egyptian cat were personal favourites. The unicorn had a crap power up though, so I can’t say that became as much of a favourite. I liked the magic bunny though. He had serial killer eyes… as I said, I liked him.
Anyway, I guess the main downside is that, as addictive as the game is, after a while it gets boring and you do want to put it away. After you play through the proper adventure, it does feel like enough for now.
Maybe, but I can see that in a year’s time I will be more than happy to start again right from the beginning. I think it has proper replay value which, considering how simple a game it is, is rather impressive.
That’s true. But longer term, it’s more of an occasional play than that you’d want to spend a session of a few hours on it. Which means it outlasts a lot of other games that get relegated to the “played drawer” since it’s not a big commitment to start again and can be easily parcelled out in bite size chunks whereas games in the Final Fantasy line demand 2 or so hours in the first sit-down.
That’s very true. It’s just a different experience. Amen to that.
Final Thoughts
The perfect coffee break game… or one for the stay-at-home parents who can only do their gaming whilst their newborns take a 20 minute nap.
Wooo Peggle! If you want better replay value, try turning into a drinking game.
A drinking game? I’m up for that.
[…] were a monumental let down. Other notable games that came close to beingย named the best include Peggle, Quadradius and DJ […]
[…] we appear to have covered a number of games developed by Popcap. When you look at games such as Peggle, Bookworm and ones we have not yet covered they are very different breed compared to Plants Vs. […]
[…] believe that in our review of Peggle we talked about how much the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) Principle leads to some incredibly […]
[…] apps because… well games have moved on. However, we still buy pinball games because, like Peggle, there is a great ‘pick up and playability’ which is non-threatening and still a lot of […]