MSRP: $4.99
Platforms: Win, Mac, iOS, Nintendo DS, XBox Live Arcade
Release: 2/27/07
Depending on the platform, Peggle Deluxe is sometimes listed as Peggle, or Peggle Classic. Regardless, it is the same game – the first in PopCap’s Peggle series.
This is another casual time-waster game that’s just different enough from most of the genre to merit some attention. There are hundreds of different match-3, time management, and hidden object games, but Peggle is more of a classic arcade style game.
For me, Peggle feels like a mash up of pinball, pool, and the old Atari game, Breakout. You’re given 10 balls and instructions to hit all orange pegs (or, in some levels, pegs and blocks). Simply fire balls from the top of the screen, and they will bounce around the game board, lighting up whatever pegs they hit and increasing your score. Extra balls can be earned either by scoring over 25,000 points with a single ball, or by catching the ball in the moving container at the bottom of the screen.
Although it sounds fairly easy, the complexity increases as you play through the campaign. Green pegs are added to give you special power-ups (power-ups change depending on who your current “teacher” is). Purple balls are added that increase your score, and they trade places with random blue pegs each time your ball drops through the bottom of the screen. A good understanding of angles and trajectories will help greatly.
There are 55 levels in the campaign, and an additional 75 challenge levels. You can also play any single level that you’ve previously unlocked in campaign mode. There is also a local co-op “duel” option, but I couldn’t tell you exactly how that works because I’ve never used it.
It’s a pretty beefy amount of play for a $5 game, and there’s a free demo available on Steam.
366 Days of Gaming 