I was replaying this again recently and it really struck me how well the scoring system is tied into the main gameplay. you can get extra shots by scoring highly, and your score multiplier increases as you clear orange pegs, so you engage with the score mechanics naturally as you play. do you want to prioritize orange pegs to move towards beating the level and increasing your multiplier, or improve your chances of a free ball by targeting the roaming purple peg? what about the master ability that's available currently, should it be used early in the level to help clear pegs or later on to gain extra shots from a high score? is it worth it to avoid clearing a section of normal pegs until your multiplier is higher?

the score system changes the importance of the different peg types over the course of a level, which adds a lot of decision making and increases the skill ceiling, allowing levels to be difficult without feeling unfair or too RNG heavy. naturally having a higher multiplier later on makes later shots feel more important, which helps keep the game exciting. I don't replay most games frequently but I'm always coming back to peggle because it's so consistently fun and replayable, and I think that's because it's actually really well designed! rest in peace old PopCap, they don't make em like they used to...