Peggle - One of Best Casual Games Ever

Michael Gartenberg | March 12, 2007, 08:48 AM

A while ago, I wrote about a secret game that was in development that had captured the imagination of everyone here, younger and older.

The title has finally been released from PopCap games and it's called Peggle. It's one of the simplest and yet most engaging and fun games I have ever played, with elements of things like pinball, pachinko, breakout that blend together seamlessly. The visuals and sounds are first rate. Like most things that look simple, it took a tremendous amount of work to achieve the playbalance to make this title work. If you're off by just a bit, you either have a title that's too simplistic to be engaging or too complex to play. There's an art to casual games and it's no coincidence that this title comes from the folks who did the Bejeweled series, the Bookworm series and Zuma.  

The concept is pretty simple you launch a ball from the top of the screen that you can aim in different directions. Then you just sit back and watch as it falls. There's a fixed number of ball per level and the idea is you must touch all the orange pegs that are interspersed with blue ones. Each level has a different pattern of orange and blue and a different onscreen personality. Later levels intoduce new types of obstacles and new powerups to help you clear each level. The strategy is knowing where to aim and learning the physics of the game. Younger kids can just click and shoot, more sophisticated players using angles and the like to maximize each ball. The best part comes at then end of each level when the screen zooms into the orange peg being hit and animated light rainbow and stars appear along with the tune ode to joy. It may seem silly but it works.

Peggle is one of those very rare titles that when you play it for the first time and see that first level cleared, you just smile. When I saw the demo last fall, I begged for a beta copy. There are no aliens to destroy, no worlds to conquer but for pure, plain fun that's pretty much age appropriate for everyone, this is one of the best ever. Do yourself a favor and download the demo. I'd love to see this on PS3 or XBox in HiDef.