Peggle, a puzzle game from Pop Cap Games, was first released on the PC and reviewed by my game critic hero, Ben “Yahtzee” Crowshaw (of Zero Punctuation fame) over a year ago.  Having very little bad to say about it, I downloaded the game when it arrived on the Xbox Live Arcade last week.

Just by starting the game you get a feel that you’ve purchased a quality game.  It all looks neat and tidy and the comments underneath the loading bar keep you entertained during the 10 seconds or so it takes to load.

The main bulk of the actual game you will be playing is the “Adventure Mode”, which consists of 11 stages, each with 5 levels.  The aim of the game is to shoot a pinball down the screen and hit all of the orange pegs in the level.  Sounds easy, but is actually quite difficult.  For starters, there are 25 orange pegs to hit, you only have 10 pinballs to start with and there are other pegs and obstacles to negotiate.  To clear the level you need to hit all of the orange pegs, so the idea is to maximise the number of these orange pegs you hit per shot.

As I mentioned above, this sounds easier than it actually is, as there are plenty of other pegs to get in the way, and being round in shape, causes the ball to fly off in a multitude of different angles when hit.  The blue pegs just generally get in your way, but the other pegs available (purple and green) actually can help you beat the level.  There are two green pegs per level that, when hit, activate your character’s special ability.  This special ability can range from removing a few orange pegs from play, releasing another pinball or even modifying your shot to optimise how many pegs are hit or to maximise your score.  There is also a purple peg that moves about on each turn. Hitting this will give you a points boost, which helps in getting a really high score.

A word of caution though, the game can get frustratingly difficult in some of the later stages, where the layout of the pegs make it incredibly hard to actually hit the orange pegs.  The balls remaining also run out very quickly if you don’t take the time to aim them correctly.  However, if you get a high enough score (more than 25,000 points) on one shot, you get awarded a free ball (and yet another if your single shot score goes above 75,000 points).  There is also an oscillating bucket at the bottom of the screen, which will award your ball back if it lands inside during your shot.  These extra free balls can come in incredibly handy when the pegs start being placed in strategically challenging positions.

I think the highlight of this game though is actually clearing the level.  After you hit the last orange peg, you go into a sort of overdrive mode called “Extreme Fever” – where lots of points are awarded for hitting any remaining blue pegs and landing in a drop zone of points (ranging from 10,000 – 100,000 points).  An emphatic version of “Ode to Joy” blares out as you enter this mode and basically sums up the extreme surge of satisfaction for beating the level (especially if it’s a tough one!).

Once the main mode has been completed, the challenge mode will unlock, which pits you against around 70 more levels, modified to be slightly more difficult.  These will keep you busy long after you complete the main game.  Likewise, there is even a multiplayer mode, so you can test your Peggle skills against people all over the world.

Peggle has been an instant hit amongst the games in my games library and really does warrant the 800MSP (£6.67) I paid to download it.  A trial game is available for download off of the Xbox Live Marketplace, so I really recommend you try it.  I’m pretty certain that if you had the points available, you’ll be unlocking the full game before the day is out.

9/10