Mania Grade: C-
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Info:
- Platform: PC
- ESRB: E
- Genre: Puzzle
- Players: 1
- Online: No
- Developer: PopCap Games
- Publisher: PopCap Games
- Suggested Retail: $19.95
- Graphics: C-
- Sound: C-
- Gameplay: C
- Replay: C-
- Fun Factor: D
- Reviewer's Wild Card: C-
Peggle
By Captain Gordon Edward
May 28, 2007
Screenshot from "Peggle."
© PopCap Games
Do you like a pinball? How about Plinko or Pachinko? In a way you are dealing with this in the Popcap game Peggle. Yikes, with so many P’s in that last little bit so perhaps I should remind you to watch your P’s and Q’s. Getting down to the heart of it each stage is laid out with a bunch of blocks that you must destroy before moving on. There are three types of blocks though and only the red need to be destroyed before you can move on. In general though there are blue blocks, red blocks that you must destroy, and green blocks that provide special power-ups depending on the level.
There are many levels and every level has five separate stages. As previously mentioned you must destroy all the red blocks in a stage before you can move to the next, but of course there are a few other ones. The colours of the blocks are randomly chosen each time you play, and this varies the difficulty substantially. Now you may be wondering exactly how you intend to destroy all of these blocks. The short answer is by launching a metallic ball in the general desired direction, and hopefully it creates a series of events leads to its destruction. Each stage is uniquely designed with pre-set pieces assembling some type of pattern.
Now you may be wondering how it is possible with a lone ball, but the truth is that you start off on each stage with ten different balls to complete the task. The balls are indestructible but will be lost after they fall off of the bottom of the screen. As they fall down they normally hit blocks they can also slide down set ramps, and if you are able to get them to do this you can set off a cascade reaction allowing for plenty of blocks to be activated and destroyed. Blocks are generally only removed from play after the current ball has left play, meaning it can be just important to line up your future shots in advance, even if it costs you a few extra balls to get the dream shot.
As previously mentioned the game provides power-ups when hitting the green blocks. Sometimes these powers are activated immediately and some require you waiting to the end of this current play before collecting. There are plenty of powers including multi-ball, Zen shot, and scary ball which directly change what happens to the ball. This is important because you have no control over the ball after you fire it, so it can become imperative to seek them out to assist with reaching the target. There are other power-ups like crab claws that allow you to defend the ball against hitting the sits of the bottom of the screen, and they act quite a bit like flippers. There is also a roulette power-up that offers up random power-ups like tripling the score or giving you an extra ball. They are generally fairly helpful, but some are fairly limited in use.
Of course what also matters -- if you are competitive -- is your score ranking, and depending on how many points you accumulate on a shot you can win an extra ball. If you score 25,000 points by hitting multiple blocks you can gain that extra ball, and believe me they make a huge difference. Another thing that helps getting this extra ball is by hitting a randomly appearing purple block, but while it helps out you do not need to go for them. There is one other way of collecting a free extra ball and that is by having the ball fall into a shifting hole at the bottom, which will also give you a few extra points. This can be difficult since it moves back and forth automatically.
Graphically it is up to snuff with other Popcap games, which means you will generally rely on sprites. The sprites look fairly nice in this one, but they are nothing that will totally amaze you. The backgrounds change as you complete each stage, which is a nice touch, but perhaps the best thing about the game is that any computer should be able to play it. For sound again the game is a little light on it, though you will be treated to some classical music at the end of each stage.
In the end, the game is cheap fun at its best. It lacks any major depth but it can be fun to play for a while. I personally did not enjoy the game as much as I liked the other ones because it left many things to chance/luck rather than skill. Indeed there is a little skill when it comes to lining up the first couple of bounces, but beyond that it becomes a major problem. I will note though that the graphical style does not really matter because their style of games are more so about creating an addictive game, but I was personally far from being addicted to it. It really is just fun for a little bit before you will move on, and with the asking price of $19.95 that can be a problem. Wrapping up, Captain Gordon gives Peggle a C-.
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