Peggle Game Review - Xbox 360

OUR RATING:

EXCELLENT

TANGIBLES:

Gameplay:		9
Visuals:		8
Audio:		8
Value:		9
Quality:		10

Why you should buy it: You want a new addiction on XBLA.

Why you should rent it: You’ve already played Peggle to death on the PC.

UNIQUE RATING:

SUGGESTION:

Buy It

Peggle

Written by: Chris Selogy | Tags: Peggle, Xbox 360

March 20,2009 - It’s not often that a casual game can be addictive enough to get buzz from the hardcore crowd, but Peggle did that when it first came out about two years ago on the PC. The mix of Plinko and pachinko/pinball aesthetics made for a game that had gamers pleading for “just one more game” until several hours later passed by and it was time for bed. Now that Peggle is on XBLA, is it still as good as it was two years ago?

It’s hard to describe just what Peggle is like, but the core of it is basically Plinko from The Price is Right with quite a few layers on top it. There are ten characters you can choose from after completing the Adventure mode that offer their own unique abilities, such as flippers, adding an additional ball, an auto-correcting ability or one of a few others that are activated when you hit one of the two green pegs on the board. You have the Bust-a-Move-style cannon at the top of the level where you shoot a metal ball at the orange pegs, which you must hit all of them to complete the level. Once you complete the level, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy plays while the bottom of the screen has new spaces that will reward you with an extra 10,000, 50,000, or 100,000 points in the final point tally for that level. That just caps off the experience as the game just screams out about your awesomeness at the end of each level and makes it hard to not play another level.

Being a PC port, the controls are probably one of the bigger parts of the console conversion for Peggle. The analog sticks offer decent general movement of the cannon while the triggers offer another notch of fine-tuning with the analog sticks, but it’s the d-pad that’s used for the ultimate control over fine-tuning that is what the scroll wheel offers for mouse controls on the PC version. It’s just that a little awkward to use the d-pad for that at times, so other options for those precision aiming controls would have been nice. The one missing control option are the use of cursor that some used to point at where they wanted to shoot in the PC version that would’ve made it a little easier to judge your aim on those longer shots, so aiming can be a bit tougher on this version of Peggle.

The Adventure mode is a fancy word for what is pretty much Peggle’s tutorial mode since it teaches you how each of the ten creatures available to you work as you play through a few levels with each creature. They’re simple enough and on the easy side that it shouldn’t take more than two or three hours to get through them all and be ready for more challenges. The game suggests continuing on to the Master mode, which is a bit harder version of the Adventure mode, but is even shorter than the Adventure mode, leaving one more single-player mode to tackle. The Challenge mode offers a lot of challenges that ask you to reach certain scores, clear all of the pegs in the level, or other tasks that may start off on the easy side, but getting deep into the list will be a true test of your Peggle mastery.

New to the Peggle world are the new multiplayer modes that come with the XBLA version. Peg Party mode lets four strangers or friends play on their own versions of the same level and see who can make the best shots to come in first place. There is also the Duel mode that is more of a direct competition where two players, local or over Live, play on the same board where they co-operate to take out all of the orange pegs, but compete against each other for the higher end score. The Duel mode is probably not the mode you’ll be the most interested since it tends to be more of a fight for the last shot to gain the extra points at the end when the other person may have done most of the work in hitting orange pegs before that point. The Peg Party mode is the more enjoyable and should work well for use with the Xbox Live Party feature.

While Peggle’s not going to be a visual powerhouse, it is definitely tailored to be a better fit for standard-def TV’s with a border around the level screen get when playing in HD. The artwork behind the pegs and all throughout the menus still look great and the HUD does a good job of offering all the info you need without making the playing field feel tiny. Peggle has a good use of sound, mostly in the use of Ode to Joy as the “You Rock!” to celebrate your victory as you see the ball bounce down and into one of the extra point holes to end the level. The sound effects are done well in a pinball-like manner to highlight special bonuses you receive or for special shots, so Peggle is as good of a visual and audio experience as it needs to be.

Peggle definitely makes the transition over to Xbox Live Arcade very well with the main game’s set of modes and two new multiplayer modes that makes it an easy 800 points, or $10, purchase if you enjoy the demo. DLC seems to be in the works to possibly add Peggle Nights, Extreme, and anything else PopCap has in store, so there should be additional levels to come in the future. The only way this wouldn’t be a recommendation would be if you either don’t like what the demo offers or have bought and worn out Peggle and its sequels/spin-offs already on the PC.

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