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Saturday, October 18, 2008
Peggle Nights
If you were one of the many original Peggle addicts, you will definitely enjoy PopCap Games' sequel Peggle Nights.If you're not familiar with the game, the player fires a ball at the top of the screen and watches as it falls to the bottom, hitting and bouncing from peg to peg. The purpose is to remove all of the orange pegs before you run out of balls - each level starts with a specified number, usually 10. At the bottom of the screen is a moving "bucket" - think of a Pong paddle, except this bucket can catch the ball. If it's caught, it's a free ball, otherwise, you lose it. There are bonus pegs - green ones that may give you an additional ball or a shoot guide (shows which peg you'll hit and how it will bounce), and purple ones that are point bonuses. If you score more than 25k in one turn, you get a free ball. As the ball heads towards your last orange peg, you get a slow motion, zoomed camera and Beethoven's Ode to Joy. Fireworks go off, the ball bounces around until it hits a bonus bucket that ranges from 10k to 100k points. (Unless you clear the screen of all blue pegs, which gives you a bonus, and the buckets at the end are all 100k.)
The only control you have once you've pointed the launcher and clicked to release the ball is that you can right-click to speed up the bucket. This is both fun and frustrating!
You can choose to play the adventure mode, 5 levels for the 12 characters, or a challenge mode, also with 60 level, that have a challenge goal, such as having the lowest score. I found I was good at that one. The player must unlock the challenge mode by playing the adventure levels. There is also an option to have Quick Play game of any completed level as well as Duel mode, where you can play 2 player on the same computer (either with another live body or the computer).
This Peggle introduces new ways to replay shots as well as a trophy room. It also adds a new Peggle Master at the end (but no spoilers here!) The cute characters (excuse me, Peggle Masters) all live out their dreams, which comprise the backgrounds of the Peggle levels.
What they did well: They didn't name it Peggle 2. While it's a sequel, if it were Peggle 2, I'd probably expect a little more. The background animations of some of the levels are simply awesome. Both the pumpkin hand-drawn versions of paintings and the lab backgrounds are my favorites. Playing against the computer in duel mode is hella hard, but is a great, fun challenge. It does seem at times the computer has some sort of inside advantage. The powerups are all different on different characters' levels. For example, the green pegs sometimes give an extra ball. Other times, you get a "flipper" like item to hit the ball to keep it in play, much like pinball. While I get very tired of repetitive things, it's amazing how much I love the drum roll, slow motion camera as I hit my last orange peg. It's great feedback!!
What could have been better: It's like a Peggle add-on. Some people may not be delighted that it's not very different.
Recommended for: fans of Peggle, arcade games, and anyone who likes fun.
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