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Moxie’s Pick of the Week |
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| March 30, 2007
Moxie’s Pick: Peggle 
You know, it was so much fun to share my favorite current game last week that I asked if I could do it again. Lucky me: they said yes! So this time, I’ll be talking about PopCap’s latest masterpiece, Peggle, which has to be the most unusual download game we’ve ever had on our site. Of course, different doesn’t necessarily mean good, but in this case, it’s awesome. | |
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| Have you ever heard of pachinko? It’s not a well-known game here in the Western world, but pachinko has been huge in Japan for decades! It’s kind of like pinball, except that the machines are vertical, the balls are a fraction of the size, and there are no flippers. At first glance, Peggle seems a lot like pachinko. You shoot a ball onto the screen, it bounces around the pegs and blocks, and eventually falls out the bottom. But that’s where the similarity ends. The rest of the game is more like Breakout, since any pins or blocks you hit vanish after the ball leaves the screen. | |
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| The object of Peggle isn’t to clear the entire screen, but just to remove all the orange pegs. And here’s where the game gets very challenging (not to mention really unique): once you release a ball onto the screen, you have absolutely no control over it. This isn’t a game about quick reflexes. It’s all about planning your shots in advance to hit the most possible orange pegs and hopefully fall into the moving “free ball” hopper at the bottom of the screen. You only have ten balls at the start of each level, and successfully clearing all the orange pegs (some of which are buried under layers of blue pegs) can take a lot of careful thought!
Of course, I also love the game’s “mentors”, a group of ten little cartoon creatures, each of whom has a special power over the game screen. Depending on your current mentor, hitting a green brick will cause the Peggle ball to catch on fire, or remove a certain percentage or orange pegs, or activate a multiball, or add flippers to the bottom of the screen. My absolute favorite, the Zen Ball, automatically realigns itself on launch to hit the most possible orange pegs. These special powers make the game even more exciting.
Anyway, Peggle is definitely my favorite game this week. I’ve been playing it madly ever since I finished Cradle of Rome, and I still haven’t conquered all the levels. You should really check it out if you enjoy pinball or Breakout-style games, or if you’ve ever tried pachinko!
Tips and tricks | |
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| · There’s no timer in Peggle, so take as long as you need to figure out your best shot. Then wait to shoot until the “free ball” hopper is on its way to the area you think the ball will end up! | |
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| · If you have a clear shot at one of the green pegs, use it as soon as possible. Most of the special powers are more effective when there are still lots of pegs on the screen. | |
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| · Aim for the orange pegs at the top of the screen first. With good aim (or lots of luck), they’ll hit a few more on the way down! | |
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| · Once you unlock all the mentor characters, you can choose which one to use on each level. I use Hu the owl as my default mentor, since Zen Ball is so useful, but switch to another character if I’m having trouble! Choose the best power for the situation. | |
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| · Sometimes, it’s better to “waste” a ball getting rid of a particularly inconvenient blue peg or block than to risk ball after ball trying to bounce off a wall or other obstacle to get the orange pegs below it. | |
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| In a nutshell
All in all, Peggle is refreshingly unique and dangerously simple, the sort of combination that makes me stay up far too late trying to refine my bank shot. You might think that a game with so little direct control would be way too easy and possibly even boring, but wow, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Great stuff!
Until next time, happy playing! | |
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