I'm not what you would call a hardcore gamer. I'm a nerd and as such I am a huge fan of all kinds of games, but I'm not the guy you'll see spending a grand at an arcade or be top ranked on any first person shooter. I consider myself to be a casual gamer. I play games until they annoy me and only get around to beating games I'm in love with. I don't obsess over any particular title, I don't have a level 80 WoW character, and I haven't memorized any button combinations or cheat codes since the NES days. I just like great game play, even if that means the story lacks. In fact, I don't even care if there's a story at all if the game play is addictive enough. Case and point: Peggle.
It's hard for me to describe Peggle to anyone; gamer or not. Simply put, you shoot balls at multicolored pegs in the hopes of eliminating all of the red pegs among a sea of blue pegs. Trust me; it's a lot more fun than it sounds on paper. Or maybe I just don't possess the literary chops and vocabulary to properly describe such a seemingly simple yet surprisingly addictive game. You're right. I'm great at this. It must just be impossible to explain until you've tried it. And you've had more than enough time to give this game a shot. Released on the PC from casual game juggernaut Pop Cap Games back in 2007, it has sprawled on nearly every gaming system since. Mostly recently it was made available on the Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Arcade store as well as a portable version on the Nintendo DS and DSi.
Like Bejeweled before it, Pop Cap Games has the incredible ability to strip down a game to the very basics and still deliver what can only be described as interactive crack. Ok, it could probably be described in other ways, but interactive crack sounds better to me. It makes it sounds dangerous. Lethal. Unruly. And you'll want to describe it the same way when you find yourself spending hours playing a game that looks like it was meant for infants. Peggle provides its players with special "Master" characters that give you certain bonus power ups when you strike special green pegs. These masters include a gopher, a bunny, and I kid you notÂ…a unicorn. Seriously. I've been spending several hours a day playing a game with a magical cartoon unicorn on the title screen. I never said I was manly. I said I was a nerd. There's a difference. For those of you not comfortable utilizing the magical gifts of the fabled unicorn, there's also a dragon character which is Peggle's version on the hardcore extreme character. Now who's playing a kiddie game, huh? There's a dragon! Nothing is manlier!
Half of the fun is that there seems to be no skill involved unless you are an expert of physics. Beyond the angle of the initial shot, the ball may fly and bounce off any number of pegs and you'll spend that entire time hoping the ball finds its way into the bucket that paces back and forth at the bottom of the screen. If it lands in the bucket you get a free ball. Free balls are better than Christmas. Don't quote me on that. The game is basically total chaos and I'd be lying if I said that didn't have at least a little bit of appeal. This is the kind of game that you buy for your mom or dad but you end up playing more.
Peggle isn't Halo. It isn't World or Warcraft or Resident Evil or Madden. It's a game you play to kill some time and fall in love with. Now that it's on the DS you can play a few rounds on your lunch break or while you wait for your new patch to download. The music is enchanting and never annoying. The game play is addictive. Frankly, it's a smile factory. You should check it out on the 360, DS, or good ol' PC and you can thank me later. I do expect your thanks. I'll be checking my e-mail regularly.
- Dr. Beef E. Thompson, Esq.: beefyness@gmail.com
