It’s been a long time coming but Popcap Games’ popular peg-popping puzzler Peggle has finally received a sequel as a timed-exclusive for Microsofts Xbox One. Peggle was originally released for Windows back in February 2007. To give you a small idea of what that time was like picture this, the Nintendo Wii had just been released and was thought to be the future of gaming. The iPhone had yet to be released. Film fans were still worried about Heath Ledgers role as The Joker in the upcoming Dark Knight movie. Myspace was still king of the social networks with Facebook on the rise and Twitter just a struggling upstart that had yet to really gain a following. Nobody knew who Justin Bieber or One Direction was. What’s my point? A lot has changed in the world of culture and entertainment since the original games release, so has Peggles addictive formula become dated or is it a welcomed return for the colourful puzzler?
Happily I can tell you it’s the latter. Peggle 2 is just as addictive as its predecessor with updated graphics, new characters and powers to learn as well as a few more welcome additions that make this a worthy sequel. Unfortunately it’s not perfect, but I’ll address the issue later, let’s be positive and look at what Peggle 2 does right.
For those unfamiliar with Peggle allow me to give you a quick explanation of the basics. You shoot a small ball at an angle of your choosing with the aim to hit as many orange pegs as possible and preferably land you ball in a bucket at the bottom of the screen to earn a free shot. Repeat this until all orange pegs have been popped. Simple, right? Any seasoned Peggle player would slap you for thinking it’s that easy. It requires strategy, an understanding of the physics as well as a hefty dollop of luck. The good news is that the mechanics in Peggle 2 are pretty much unchanged to the original, with maybe only a little tinkering as the balls do seem to slide and bounce a little better this time around, but a new addition are the armored pegs that require 2 hits to pop them and let me tell you that Peggle 2 is incredibly addictive.
At its core Peggle 2 is a throwback to a retro era of gaming where beating high scores was the only goal. How you do this comes is up to you. You can try a combination of trick shots, clearing all blue and orange pegs, aim for the bonus point purple pegs or aim for green pegs that allow you to use a special ability to help rack up higher points, bigger combos and boost your points multiplier. It’s these special abilities where the Peggle Masters come in to play.
Peggle 2 introduces 4 new Peggle Masters to the series as well as returning Bjorn the Unicorn from the previous game. It’s a shame that the sequel only gives us 5 characters to play with, as opposed to the 10 in the original game, but these 5 feel much more fleshed-out than many of those Peggle Masters who have failed to make the jump to Peggle 2. Each Master has a short intro, unique personality, an accompanying theme song and unlockable costumes to add a little customisation to them. Their main purpose though is their unique special powers the player can unlock by popping green pegs. Each have their own positives and negatives ranging from how many turns the power is active, how they affect the Peggle board or how useful in different situations they can be. My favourite is Gnorman, a gnome with a steampunk style theme, whose power comes in the form of the Uber-Volt, an electric power that will also pop 2 surrounding pegs to any the ball hits. This can create a huge combo when utilized well and will help clear some pesky orange pegs hidden behind a bumper, wall or larger group of useless blue pegs. Gnorman is awesome.
The graphics and sound have all been given a great new upgrade, seeming brighter and more vibrant than ever. The pegs and balls stand out from their backgrounds and there’s never a dull moment in this colour-filled universe. Equally the sound and music perfectly compliments the game. Every time a ball connects with a peg you’re treated with a satisfying plink. It’s a small, obvious detail but a sound you so often hear that it had to be perfect. Hearing an awesome operatic symphony blasting out as you finish a level adds to the sense of achievement that very few games are able to provide.
Peggle 2 gives you 6 worlds to visit, each with 10 standard levels and 10 trials. 5 of the worlds are designed around each of the Peggle Masters, each one unlocking as you beat the previous world. The 6th world acts as a final, more difficult world giving you the choice of which Master to use on each level. While each world is unique in its look and design the basic idea is the same, pop all the pegs, but I have to admit they are over far too quickly. You can easily beat every level in a few hours. The trials mix things up with unique challenges to separate themselves from the standard ‘pop all the pegs’ goal but once they are completed there’s little to go back to. Peggle 2 does try to provide an added challenge by giving you 3 optional objectives to beat on the standard levels, but they felt like more of a grind rather than a way to expand the life of the game. It’s a shame and just 1 of the ways the game doesn’t quite feel complete. Hopefully more levels and Masters will be added with DLC, but I hope PopCap doesn’t charge gamers too much, if anything at all, for what most would agree would be delivering the true final product.
Luckily Peggle 2 comes with online multiplayer, brilliant. Unfortunately the multiplayer is also unfinished. With only 1 mode to pick from at the moment it’s far from ideal but more are expected to come and “Peg Party” is pretty fun in its own right. Up to 4 players with their own Peggle Masters are set loose on identical but separate Peggle board. The aim is simply to get the highest score. After each round you get to see your opponents score increase. It’s infuriating seeing people soar past your minuscule tally, but equally thrilling when you do the same to them. On to technical problems now. I’ve heard many people experience frame rate issues. Gladly I didn’t, however I did have some odd problems that may be down to the Xbox One itself. On many occasions the game would quit to desktop, a common issue in PC gaming but something I’ve never experienced in consoles. I wonder if this is an Xbox One issue only because it has happened to me in FIFA 14 as well. Both games are published by EA so maybe they could be the culprit somehow, but it’s an issue that often ruined a great run I was having and something I assume will be patched.
Peggle 2 is great fun, it’s a game I would recommend to every Xbox One owner, but unfortunately it’s only let down is just how quickly the experience is over due to the game feeling incomplete. The addition of new Peggle Masters and new modes will definitely help extend the shelf life, but they’re feature that should have been including on release. I have continued to play Peggle 2, it’s the perfect casual, time waster that will easily force itself on you to become your new addiction, but it could have been that bit more. It’s still Peggle and there’s still that fascination of seeing what happens after that first bounce is out of your hands.