Game review: Peggle - PlayStation 3

PopCap’s peg-busting game on the PlayStation Network is easily as good as it’s been previously on other platforms.

Addictive is a word used far too often in game reviews. It’s become such a cliché to call a game addictive (or addicting, as American reviewers rather bizarrely seem to favour) that you may have stopped noticing the word in articles.

However, look closely and I bet you’ll find it in about 90 per cent of gaming features, usually describing a game which is a bit of fun for a while rather than something which is truly addictive.

Peggle is one of the few games which the word addictive can legitimately be applied to.

It’s simple enough that anyone can play it, so it’s easy to get sucked in. Its fiendishly morish challenges then get players hooked to the point where they can’t let go.

Try it for yourself. Load the game up, play one level, then try and put your controller down. Can’t do it, can you?

It really is a classic example of a just-one-more-go game.

Peggle is loosely based on the Japanese pachinko machine but switches the concept from a casino type setting to the home and mixes in PopCap’s trademark colour, fun and accessibility.

On each of the 55 levels in Peggle’s main adventure mode there is a formation of 100 blue pegs, the arrangement of which is based on the theme of the beautifully rendered background scene. Themes for levels include space, underwater, spooky, flower power and magic.

A quarter of the pegs are turned orange and the aim on each level is to clear these by firing balls from a shooter at the top of the screen. As you hit a peg (whether it's blue or orange) it disappears from the board.

You start off with 10 shots though bonus balls can be won.

Hitting blue pegs adds to your score, but their main advantage is bouncing balls off them to hit the orange pegs.

The skill lies in aiming each shot. You must carefully line up the shooter to set off the best chain of ricochets and bounces around the board to take out as many orange pegs as possible with each shot.

On every level there are a couple of green pegs which when hit activate special powers, such as having multiple balls, pinball-like flippers and a laser guide to help with aiming.

The tension is really ramped up when you get down to the last orange peg. Here the game switches to a slow-motion view, and if you’re on-target a cascade of colour and fireworks is unleashed across the screen.

As your ball bounces around building up big bonus points, a blast of Ode To Joy is played in celebration of completing the stage.

As well as the main adventure mode Peggle offers numerous other challenges, including two-player duels and online party mode.

Peggle is a charming game oozing with happiness from every pore.

It’s impossible to imagine anyone playing this and not having a smile on their face afterwards. It’s the perfect game to wind down with after a stressful day.

The whimsical characters of the unicorn, dragon and co, along with the bright colours, might fool some people into thinking this is a childish or silly game, but Peggle is a game which can be enjoyed by everyone, even those grizzled shoot ‘em up bloodthirsty types who wouldn’t normally touch a so-called casual game.

Peggle is just good fun through and through – and yes, addictive too.

If you’ve never played Peggle before, the PlayStation Network price of £6 makes it a bargain.

If you have played through it on other platforms you’re not really getting anything new or different here, but it’s still worth getting the game to relive that Peggle magic.

Verdict: 9 out of 10 – A simple concept beautifully executed, Peggle is a delight to play and nigh on impossible to switch off.