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When Peggle first breathed life into the flagging PC puzzle market back in 2007, it quickly won over legions of fans enamored by its furiously addictive gameplay and overly eccentric style. At its best it was habitual ‘play until your eyes ache’ fixation; at its greatest it was ‘miss-your-own-mother’s-funeral’ life consuming.
Pop Cap, the team behind the game, obviously saw a gap in the market for people wanting to play Peggle on the bus journey to the funeral parlor and subsequently decided to bring their little puzzler to the App Store. For those who missed out on the PC version (or the ensuing Xbox live arcade/DS incarnations) the game plays like a pinball sim crossed with a ‘match three’ puzzler. Each stage sees a number of orange, blue, purple and green pegs scattered over a zany background with the aim being to light up all of the orange pegs to proceed onwards. To light up these pegs you have control over a small marble-like ball, deployed from a top mounted rotating turret, which will predictably ricochet off anything it touches. If all this sounds complicated it really isn’t. Every level of the adventure mode is brought to you by a different cartoon mentor who, along with offering you stage specific power-ups, gives you hints and tips on the best way to proceed.
Peggle only really starts to become an addiction part-way through the adventure mode, when you realize that the limited number of balls you have means careful consideration is required when choosing your trajectory. As you progress through the themed stages the entertainment naturally shifts from just enjoying watching the ball bounce around the stage, to satisfyingly pulling off high scoring shots. To further inflame your compulsion the game has all sorts of quirky twists, from the overly grand finishing celebrations (that include a rendition of Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’) to the option to capture your favourite moments via a replay system.
After the adventure is over and done with (culminating with your mentor awarding you a diploma in Peggle) you unlock the fiendishly difficult challenge mode, designed to test the skills you learnt while studying for your qualification. While the gameplay still feels fresh in the challenge mode, the various quirks and idiosyncrasies of the presentation start to lose their novelty to the point where you’ll most likely end up turning the music off to save yourself hearing ‘Ode to Joy’ for the 200th time.
Peggle’s eccentricity is so infectious that even the most stoic of non puzzle fans are likely to warm to its charm. Though it can become mildly annoying having Beethoven thrust down your throat at every opportunity, there is no greater puzzle game to captivate and even dominate your free time.
