PS3 Review - Peggle

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Peggle is a 2D puzzle game developed by Pop Cap Games, and released onto the PlayStation Network on November 19th. This game was released earlier this year on Xbox360, iphone, ipod, wii, DS, Mac and PC. The reason this game was released on so many platforms, is because this is a game that needs to be played by everyone. With bright, colorful visuals, great sound, and gamplay more addicting than a bag of potato chips, Peggle is one of the best games on PSN.

The game revolves around very simple gameplay. You are given a board filled with blue, orange, and green pegs. You start with 10 balls, and have to hit all the orange pegs to clear the stage. You can gain additional balls by getting a certain score or if the ball lands in a bucket that moves back and forth at the bottom of the stage. The game includes an adventure mode, a challenge mode, a duel mode, quickplay option, and local and online multiplayer. Adventure mode is the basic story mode for the game. There really isn’t much story to speak of, except for a short paragraph at the beginning of each world, but this game is really about the gameplay. This is the mode in which you will play through all the levels in the game, and once you beat a level, you can replay it anytime you want in quickplay mode.

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Before you can tackle any of the challenges or duels, you must complete adventure mode. Adventure mode contains 11 worlds, each with 5 levels. This is the perfect length. It’s long enough so that you feel satisfied after completing the game, but it doesn’t feel like it is dragging on. Each world has you controlling a different character with the exception of the last world, which lets you pick your own character. Each world does a great job of introducing you to the character and the character’s power-up. The only difference between characters is the power-up you receive for hitting green pegs (there are two green pegs in every level). Every world is designed with the respective character in mind, so each world feels a little unique. This doesn’t mean that you are obligated to use the same character for certain levels, because the game does a good job of balancing the power-ups.

Once you are done with adventure mode, there are dozens of challenges to complete. These range from simple score challenges, to ones that require you to clear every peg in a stage, to half a dozen other challenges. There are a total of 75 challenges and they are guaranteed to keep you busy for quite some time. The added challenge that these levels represent enhance the aspects of Peggle that make it extremely fun and enjoyable. This trend also continues into duel mode. In this mode, you pick a stage, the character you will play against, and the computer’s difficulty level. Both of these modes will insure you keep playing Peggle long after you finish adventure mode.

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The gameplay modes I mentioned above would be enough to satisfy even the most frugal of gamers, but Peggle also features a great multiplayer mode. There is local multiplayer, where two players exchange shots at the same board. You can also play this same match online and a Peg Party match. In Peg Party, you and three other players each get your own board and shoot at the same time. Each multiplayer mode feels completely different from each other, and they are very fun to play with friends. The only downside is that there aren’t many people playing this game online. So if you want to just hop online and play a random game with strangers, you probably won’t find a game. This wasn’t that big of an issue for me because the single player, and local multiplayer were enough content to keep me happy.

The one thing Peggle does great is the way it rewards the player. It’s a very satisfying feeling when you shoot a ball and it lights up a dozen pegs, or when you hit a peg that seems impossible to hit. No matter what your skill as a gamer, you will make incredible shots and can’t think of any game rewards you so much when you do make those shots. You even have the option of uploading your awesome shots to YouTube. This is a game that you can pick up and play for 10 minutes or spend all night playing, and either way, have tons of fun. If you only buy one PSN game this fall, this game is it.