Peggle breathes new life into an arcade classic.
The Bad: Soundtrack can get annoying after a while, especially if you're stuck on one level.
Arcade Classics. That simple phrase conjures up a plethora of both conscious and sub-conscious images of late nights spent down at your local amusements as you pump your entire week's pocket money into what is basically a glorified TV with some knobs and buttons on it. Like some kind of primitive pay-to-watch meter system. That's how I spent my childhood. Playing titles that will be cemented in the minds of many for years to come, timeless. Games that are beautiful in their simplicity, a place where graphics take a backseat to thrilling and memorable gameplay with a huge lean towards having the most fun as possible. Xbox Live Arcade's 'Peggle' is a game that has set itself a goal - to encapsulate the playability of the penny arcade in your front room. Taking the game at face value, Peggle is the spiritual successor to the iconic puzzler 'Breakout' of many, many moons ago but nonetheless a timeless classic that has spawned many imitations. The basic idea (as it has been for years) is that you have bricks, a paddle and a ball. Your mission statement for each level is to eliminate the bricks using the ball and the paddle. Simple, no? It's a tried and tested model that works.
Peggle takes this template and bends it, shapes it and gives it new life by upping the ante on the graphics, but not losing any of the fun that made that style of game iconic. In front of you is presented a patten of blue and orange bulbs in various configurations, a ball release at the top and a paddle moving left to right at the bottom. To beat the level, the player has to hit all of the orange balls using the ten balls in your arsenal. One by one you aim the ball (which also moves left to right on its axis) for the best angle of attack into the blue and orange bulbs. Fans of the genre will appreciate the familiar, while new fans will get their heads around Peggle easily as the learning curve is not very steep. Powerups are also plentiful, and come in the form of a character such as a cartoon horse and a comedy hamster all bestowing different bonuses to the player. These powerups are activated by lighting up the green balls (two per level) and can activate goodies such as multiball, fireball and the 'Zen' ball - which is wherever you fire the ball, the Zen Master (an owl) will tweak your shot to attain maximum points. It's a real hoot...geddit?
There are over 50 different levels, all of varying and original designs, modelling around the level background adding variety to a game that could get a bit repetitive. Peggle doesn't take itself too seriously. Actually, it's a right laugh. For example, instead of the loading screen? You get a note on the screen which 'Gathering fluffiness' and 'Composing Ode to Joy'. Now, if you weren't familiar with the Beethoven Opus that I've just mentioned then you will be if you manage to clear all of the orange balls and bricks with the available balls. That is to say, when you complete the level, Ode to Joy blasts out of your speakers accompanied by fireworks and fanfare similar unseen since the days of Mario when you juuuuuust managed to jump over the flagpole to get into the castle.
To say that Peggle is addictive is an understatement. It's about as addictive as crystal-meth…but far better for your health, but not by much as you will be spending hours trying to perfect your shot so it bounces into as many orange balls and nets you maximum points. It's also the little things that make Peggle stand out as a 21st century puzzler. Let me set the scene, your faced with one ball left in your arsenal and there are 3 orange bricks (or pegs) to hit and boy, they couldn't be further away from each other. You have no powerups or bonuses left, and the paddle moving relentlessly from left to right at the bottom of the screen seems to taunt you as you aim your final shot. You fire, and the ball heads towards one peg, bounces off the wall to hit the other then amazingly, deflects off a blue peg and flies towards the other orange when everything goes slo-mo n and then BAM!, the fireworks hit and the flukiness of your shot is tantamount to euphoria.
Peggle doesn't take itself too seriously though, as you can the mascots for the powerups take the forms of gophers, unicorns and…erm, pumpkins. Also the loading screen is emblazoned with slogans such as 'preparing fluffiness' and 'enhancing cuteness', a theme which continues throughout. Initially viewed as 'another' block-esque puzzler, Peggle can be enormous fun played alone or with friends to see who can get the most pegs in one shot. The flukiness of the game is also incredible as seemingly impossible shots are just nailed by the slimmest of margins by absolute chance.
There's plenty of gameplay here for an XBLA title. For example, aside from the aforementioned single player mode, there's multiplayer, a surprisingly well thought out and fluid online multiplayer game type using a ranked system based on experience. A challenge mode is also present with some pretty difficult levels to complete all for the glory of 'Ode to Joy' and those precious achievements.
Conclusion:
Peggle breathes new life into a game genre that was previously exhausted over various platforms from your mobile phone to your home computer. It gives the 'block breaker' classic a modern and more over, extremely fun and replayable gaming experience, one which you can pick up and play for a couple of levels, or tackle the ever increasing difficulty of the challenges to inviting your friends over Xbox live for a game. It's addictive too, really addictive and should sit well in anyone's collection who likes a bit of fun, and takes themselves about as unseriously as Peggle itself.