Hu, a wise owl, gives you the Zen Ball ability, which, like the super guide, lets you see the angle of your shots and where the ball will end up after being fired, however, it auto adjusts the angle of your shot, compensating for the best possible outcome. The last character to help you is probably one of the most useful. The fireball, predictably, cuts a burning path through all the pegs it touches. (tres chic!)Ĭinderbottom the green dragon awaits in one of the final stages and grants you his fireball ability which fires off a large, molten rock, instead of the usual steel ball. Warren is the quintessential magic rabbit, using his lucky spin ability activates a spinner on screen, which can give you triple the points for the next couple turns, an extra ball, a random power, or his own power, and turn the ball into a glowing magical top hat. Tula is a sunflower, whose power turns 20% of the orange pegs into pretty flowers, lighting them up. It also gives you a chance to earn the "spooktacular" bonus. His "spooky ball" ability gives the ball a healthy green glow, and when your ball is lost, it drops a brand new one from the top of the screen. Renfield is a disembodied pumpkin head on a slab, though he must not mind, since hes always smiling. His ability places two large lobster claws on the sides of the board that "lets you hit the ball like a game where there's a ball and you hit it with flippers". Then there's Claude, a cheery lobster with green starfish boxers on. Splork is a strange green alien with a large raygun that blasts all the orbs in the vicinity when you activate his power. His power attaches a pyramid to both sides of the bucket below the board, making it easier to save your ball. Tut is a fat kitty who wears a pharaoh's headdress, and carries two golden artifacts while sitting atop an ancient (probably from 1990) tablet. You'll also meet Jimmy Lightning, a squirrel on a skateboard (which isn't cool, in and of itself, cause living in Los Angeles, most of the squirrels here have skateboards, heck, a few even have surfboards), but he also wears knee pads! That's right, safety first! His ability is the multiball, which simply poofs another ball into play as soon as it's activated. There's Bjorn unicorn (apparently a Swedish unicorn), who grants you the super guide ability, which shows you a line or curve when you aim a shot, so you can see exactly where your shot will take your ball. There are quite a few "masters" who grant you special powers when you hit a green block or orb, listed below. You aren't quite alone on your Peggle journey, however. The various plinks and plunks of the ball are fun to blast though, and if loud enough, will definitely annoy some people. The graphics are appropriately flashy and bright and colorful, and the music is pretty snappy, though it can get repetitive. The other side of the screen features a fever meter, which slowly rises as you earn points, the flashing lights eventually going nuts when you successfully complete a level.
The sides of the board come complete with a ball o tron, which keeps track of free balls earned, how many balls you have left, and how prone you are to seizures caused by garish, flashing neon lights. While each level may have a set "pattern", the blocks and their positions in those patterns are different with each playing, so if you get stuck, chances are you'll complete a level eventually, once you get a good board. Some of the levels are pretty nifty to look at, like a car made out of blocks with moving "wheels" and a line of blocks moving underneath to simulate a road, or a spiderweb patterned level. The levels start off rather tame, but get more complex and inventive as you advance. You'll rack up points for everything, from hitting special pink blocks, to shots that bounce from one end of the board to the other. The basic gameplay is pretty straightforward, you start with ten balls and using the mouse to aim, you fire em off into each level, ultimately trying to clear all the orange pegs and blocks. (Kind of like how Ireland is England's answer to Puerto Rico).
No, its not a bad Roger Corman movie, it's the life of a steel ball in Peggle, Popcap Games' answer to pachinko. It may have scared the crap out of you, but it just earned someone you never met a ton of points. You're minding your own business, staring at your own reflection in the head of the guy next to you in line, when, suddenly, you're shot into the air, and find yourself bouncing off brightly colored orange and blue walls, that seem to light up when you touch them, and soon after find yourself falling into a large moving bucket. By allicrombie | Review Date: February 17, 2008