I bought Peggle Deluxe expecting your average time-sink - an unexceptional product bolstered by satisfying mechanics. Yet I was quickly surprised by the comprehensive quality of this silly game, not just in its pachinko-like gameplay, but in the overall presentation and amount of quality content it includes. In fact, this has to be one of the most fun time-sinks that I’ve ever played!
In Peggle, you must destroy each stages’ pegs by aiming and shooting ten balls from the top of the screen. The twenty-five orange pegs randomly scattered throughout the level serve as your main target; blue pegs simply count towards your total score. There’s a bucket that travels back and forth at the bottom of the screen, and if your ball falls into it, you get to reuse it.
You also earn a score multiplier based on how many orange pegs you’ve already cleared from the board. Once you’ve destroyed all of them, the bottom of the screen becomes a series of buckets worth varying amounts of points. Finally, you’ll get extra points for every unused ball you have.
What really makes this game fun are the endless opportunities for combos. Each turn, there will be one randomly assigned purple peg that, if hit, gives a huge amount of points and multiplies the score for that ball. It’s half skill and half luck, as you try to predict how your ball will bounce - and it’s extremely satisfying when it works out well. If you make a particularly impressive shot, there’s an easily accessible feature to watch a replay and download it.
Before anything else, you’ll need to complete Adventure Mode, where you’re introduced to ten Peggle Masters over the course of eleven stages. This cast of silly characters - from a unicorn to a pumpkin head - not only teach you the game’s core mechanics, but also provide their own special ability when selected. After beating the final stage, you’ll graduate from the ‘Peggle Institute’, and a special trophy will be displayed on the main menu.
Each Adventure stage consists of five levels; the first ten stages are dedicated to one Master each, and the last stage tests the skills you’ve gained so far. Every level has two-randomly selected green pegs that will activate the Master ability when hit. After finishing the tenth stage, you’ll be able to choose which ability to equip before starting a level. This is easily one of the most fun parts of the game, mixing and matching the abilities with your current obstacle. It can entirely change your playstyle!
Take, for example, Warren Rabbit. His ability spins a wheel that can provide either his Magic Hat (which lights up pegs near your ball, even if they don’t directly touch), an extra ball, a random Master ability, or triple the score for two turns. You’d usually select Rabbit when you’re going for high scores. Conversely, there’s Tula Sunflower, who lights up 20% of your remaining orange pegs; a good choice if you’re having trouble clearing a level. There are a few abilities that aren’t practical to choose very often - like Kat Tut and Claude Lobster - but most of them have at least some use case.
There are three other modes to explore outside of Adventure. The first is Quick Play, where you can replay any level you’ve already beaten and try for a better high score. There’s also a Duel Mode, unlocked after finishing stage one of Adventure; this acts as a local multiplayer option in which you can play against either a local friend or the computer.
Lastly is the Challenge Mode, my personal favorite out of all of them. This one’s only unlocked after you completely finish Adventure. It boasts 75 challenge levels, each with special requirements - for example, there may be an increased number of orange pegs, or you may have to reach a specific high score.
Although there’s no actual story in Peggle, there is some dialogue during Adventure. The Masters offer tips at the beginning of each level, usually to explain their ability and the best ways to use it. I definitely appreciated the effort to integrate these characters into the gameplay further, and their advice can be useful. However, the writing constantly tries to be clever and humorous, and it unfortunately almost always fails. Here are a few examples of some particularly bad lines, so that you can gauge the quality for yourself.
“I think it's really important to be environmentally aware. That's why I'll only drive a car made of imaginary magical bricks!”
“I've got a fever, and the only cure is Extreme Fever! Ha Ha! Get it? It's ironic because the cure for my fever is actually more fever.”
“I don't have any tips or advice for you this time! I just hope you're having fun!”
Even just the way some characters speak is terrible. The lobster has an annoyingly thick French accent. The alien says a weird word at the beginning of every line, like “greep” and “gloop”. The skateboarding gopher uses outdated skater jargon in nearly every sentence, like extreme and super wicked. He even calls his multiball ability multiballular action. Kill me.
The one thing I actually did like about the writing was the inclusion of new, more creative lines that replace the tips in a NG+ Adventure. It’s still far from the best dialogue ever, but I’ll admit it got a few smiles out of me. The Masters will simply pop in every once and a while to talk about themselves or the game; this scarcity makes them feel much more charming, rather than the usual hamfistedness you deal with in a first playthrough.
As for the Masters’ physical designs, well… they’re probably my least favorite part of the game’s entire presentation. The skateboarding gopher, the cat plastered with outdated Egyptian stereotypes, all of their dead eyes staring into my soul - they’re mediocre at best, and off-putting at worst. The only one I think is halfway decent is Lord Cinderbottom, and that’s only because he’s your run-of-the-mill, standard dragon.
Aside from the Masters’, the game’s overall aesthetic is mostly really nice. An easy positive is that each level has its own unique background art; no two are the same. It’s awesome to see the effort put into this aspect of it, but still… I unfortunately just don’t like most of the pieces. While they aren’t terrible, I’m not a fan of Pop Cap’s aesthetic. It’s a weird, overly-smooth mix of cartoony and realistic that doesn’t look great to me. I especially don’t like all of the flowers and snails with human-like faces; and while I am more partial to the landscape pieces, they’re still not my favorite.
What I did love about the visuals were the way they utilized the pegs to effectively ‘trace’ each drawing, which adds a bit of a 3D effect. This makes the game feel much more unified and engaging than, say, if they’d gone with simpler backgrounds so as not to account for them while designing levels. The devs could’ve easily copped out and gone with solid colors or simple patterns - instead, they fully committed.
Another thing I really appreciated visually was the UI. The menus are effortless to navigate, and the in-game layout is nice and legible, with your ball counter taking up the left and your score multiplier on the right. Something I didn’t notice at first, but loved once I did, was that the layout’s color and corner decor changes based on the current theme of the stage! For example, the space levels are purple with planets and stars, while the water levels are blue with fish and waves. Even the ball shooter changes color to match!
The soundtrack is very fun, too, probably the best part of the presentation. Peggle opens with a small section of ‘Morning Mood’ by Peer Gynt, as the sun peeks over the horizon. And - as many are at least superficially aware, due to the Peggle 2 meme - ‘Ode to Joy’ by Beethoven serves as a crucial part of the Peggle experience. When you destroy a level’s last orange peg, rainbows and fireworks shoot across the screen as this triumphant track plays. It’s a great adrenaline rush every time, and feels like a real celebration for your completion.
The rest of the music, made to accompany gameplay, is all original material. It uses a lot of keyboard, bass, and drums to lead the beat, creating a funky vibe that can lean into either jazz or electronic roots at the turn of a dime. They’re nearly all over four minutes long, too; this ensures that you’ll be accompanied by an entire unique track during a level, instead of an annoying looping soundbite.
The choice of in-game song is selected randomly, instead of each being assigned to certain levels or stages. Surprisingly, I actually like this method. Since they didn’t create tracks focusing on each stage’s theme (ocean, space, Egypt, etc.) - which is what I would’ve ultimately preferred - it’s fun to just see what you get.
The game’s overall sound design is very tight in general! The ping when you hit a peg, that increases in pitch the more you hit in one shot, is very satisfying. Each Master also has a signature sound effect that plays when you select them on the menu or use their ability, which I thought was a nice touch.
Lastly, I want to touch on Peggle’s replayability. I think this is one of the most replayable games I’ve come across in a while. It’s so easy to boot it up for a few quick levels, since one only takes a few minutes at most. There are multiple game modes to check out; its multiplayer option (that even offers a computer opponent) is a great inclusion, and I love the unique obstacles presented in Adventure. Even just replaying levels in Quick Mode, you can work to beat your own high scores.
I had so much fun exploring all of this gameplay that Peggle Deluxe had to offer. I thought of the series as nothing but a funny joke before actually trying it. Now I genuinely understand why that guy was so excited to announce Peggle 2! I can’t wait to play the rest of the series and see how they expand the groundwork laid here. I highly recommend this first entry, as it holds up as a genuinely fun and stylish experience even seventeen years later.
Visuals: 3.5/5
Sound: 4.5/5
Story: 2/5
Gameplay: 5/5
Replayability: 4.5/5
Overall Game Score: 4/5 [3.9/5]
In Peggle, you must destroy each stages’ pegs by aiming and shooting ten balls from the top of the screen. The twenty-five orange pegs randomly scattered throughout the level serve as your main target; blue pegs simply count towards your total score. There’s a bucket that travels back and forth at the bottom of the screen, and if your ball falls into it, you get to reuse it.
You also earn a score multiplier based on how many orange pegs you’ve already cleared from the board. Once you’ve destroyed all of them, the bottom of the screen becomes a series of buckets worth varying amounts of points. Finally, you’ll get extra points for every unused ball you have.
What really makes this game fun are the endless opportunities for combos. Each turn, there will be one randomly assigned purple peg that, if hit, gives a huge amount of points and multiplies the score for that ball. It’s half skill and half luck, as you try to predict how your ball will bounce - and it’s extremely satisfying when it works out well. If you make a particularly impressive shot, there’s an easily accessible feature to watch a replay and download it.
Before anything else, you’ll need to complete Adventure Mode, where you’re introduced to ten Peggle Masters over the course of eleven stages. This cast of silly characters - from a unicorn to a pumpkin head - not only teach you the game’s core mechanics, but also provide their own special ability when selected. After beating the final stage, you’ll graduate from the ‘Peggle Institute’, and a special trophy will be displayed on the main menu.
Each Adventure stage consists of five levels; the first ten stages are dedicated to one Master each, and the last stage tests the skills you’ve gained so far. Every level has two-randomly selected green pegs that will activate the Master ability when hit. After finishing the tenth stage, you’ll be able to choose which ability to equip before starting a level. This is easily one of the most fun parts of the game, mixing and matching the abilities with your current obstacle. It can entirely change your playstyle!
Take, for example, Warren Rabbit. His ability spins a wheel that can provide either his Magic Hat (which lights up pegs near your ball, even if they don’t directly touch), an extra ball, a random Master ability, or triple the score for two turns. You’d usually select Rabbit when you’re going for high scores. Conversely, there’s Tula Sunflower, who lights up 20% of your remaining orange pegs; a good choice if you’re having trouble clearing a level. There are a few abilities that aren’t practical to choose very often - like Kat Tut and Claude Lobster - but most of them have at least some use case.
There are three other modes to explore outside of Adventure. The first is Quick Play, where you can replay any level you’ve already beaten and try for a better high score. There’s also a Duel Mode, unlocked after finishing stage one of Adventure; this acts as a local multiplayer option in which you can play against either a local friend or the computer.
Lastly is the Challenge Mode, my personal favorite out of all of them. This one’s only unlocked after you completely finish Adventure. It boasts 75 challenge levels, each with special requirements - for example, there may be an increased number of orange pegs, or you may have to reach a specific high score.
Although there’s no actual story in Peggle, there is some dialogue during Adventure. The Masters offer tips at the beginning of each level, usually to explain their ability and the best ways to use it. I definitely appreciated the effort to integrate these characters into the gameplay further, and their advice can be useful. However, the writing constantly tries to be clever and humorous, and it unfortunately almost always fails. Here are a few examples of some particularly bad lines, so that you can gauge the quality for yourself.
“I think it's really important to be environmentally aware. That's why I'll only drive a car made of imaginary magical bricks!”
“I've got a fever, and the only cure is Extreme Fever! Ha Ha! Get it? It's ironic because the cure for my fever is actually more fever.”
“I don't have any tips or advice for you this time! I just hope you're having fun!”
Even just the way some characters speak is terrible. The lobster has an annoyingly thick French accent. The alien says a weird word at the beginning of every line, like “greep” and “gloop”. The skateboarding gopher uses outdated skater jargon in nearly every sentence, like extreme and super wicked. He even calls his multiball ability multiballular action. Kill me.
The one thing I actually did like about the writing was the inclusion of new, more creative lines that replace the tips in a NG+ Adventure. It’s still far from the best dialogue ever, but I’ll admit it got a few smiles out of me. The Masters will simply pop in every once and a while to talk about themselves or the game; this scarcity makes them feel much more charming, rather than the usual hamfistedness you deal with in a first playthrough.
As for the Masters’ physical designs, well… they’re probably my least favorite part of the game’s entire presentation. The skateboarding gopher, the cat plastered with outdated Egyptian stereotypes, all of their dead eyes staring into my soul - they’re mediocre at best, and off-putting at worst. The only one I think is halfway decent is Lord Cinderbottom, and that’s only because he’s your run-of-the-mill, standard dragon.
Aside from the Masters’, the game’s overall aesthetic is mostly really nice. An easy positive is that each level has its own unique background art; no two are the same. It’s awesome to see the effort put into this aspect of it, but still… I unfortunately just don’t like most of the pieces. While they aren’t terrible, I’m not a fan of Pop Cap’s aesthetic. It’s a weird, overly-smooth mix of cartoony and realistic that doesn’t look great to me. I especially don’t like all of the flowers and snails with human-like faces; and while I am more partial to the landscape pieces, they’re still not my favorite.
What I did love about the visuals were the way they utilized the pegs to effectively ‘trace’ each drawing, which adds a bit of a 3D effect. This makes the game feel much more unified and engaging than, say, if they’d gone with simpler backgrounds so as not to account for them while designing levels. The devs could’ve easily copped out and gone with solid colors or simple patterns - instead, they fully committed.
Another thing I really appreciated visually was the UI. The menus are effortless to navigate, and the in-game layout is nice and legible, with your ball counter taking up the left and your score multiplier on the right. Something I didn’t notice at first, but loved once I did, was that the layout’s color and corner decor changes based on the current theme of the stage! For example, the space levels are purple with planets and stars, while the water levels are blue with fish and waves. Even the ball shooter changes color to match!
The soundtrack is very fun, too, probably the best part of the presentation. Peggle opens with a small section of ‘Morning Mood’ by Peer Gynt, as the sun peeks over the horizon. And - as many are at least superficially aware, due to the Peggle 2 meme - ‘Ode to Joy’ by Beethoven serves as a crucial part of the Peggle experience. When you destroy a level’s last orange peg, rainbows and fireworks shoot across the screen as this triumphant track plays. It’s a great adrenaline rush every time, and feels like a real celebration for your completion.
The rest of the music, made to accompany gameplay, is all original material. It uses a lot of keyboard, bass, and drums to lead the beat, creating a funky vibe that can lean into either jazz or electronic roots at the turn of a dime. They’re nearly all over four minutes long, too; this ensures that you’ll be accompanied by an entire unique track during a level, instead of an annoying looping soundbite.
The choice of in-game song is selected randomly, instead of each being assigned to certain levels or stages. Surprisingly, I actually like this method. Since they didn’t create tracks focusing on each stage’s theme (ocean, space, Egypt, etc.) - which is what I would’ve ultimately preferred - it’s fun to just see what you get.
The game’s overall sound design is very tight in general! The ping when you hit a peg, that increases in pitch the more you hit in one shot, is very satisfying. Each Master also has a signature sound effect that plays when you select them on the menu or use their ability, which I thought was a nice touch.
Lastly, I want to touch on Peggle’s replayability. I think this is one of the most replayable games I’ve come across in a while. It’s so easy to boot it up for a few quick levels, since one only takes a few minutes at most. There are multiple game modes to check out; its multiplayer option (that even offers a computer opponent) is a great inclusion, and I love the unique obstacles presented in Adventure. Even just replaying levels in Quick Mode, you can work to beat your own high scores.
I had so much fun exploring all of this gameplay that Peggle Deluxe had to offer. I thought of the series as nothing but a funny joke before actually trying it. Now I genuinely understand why that guy was so excited to announce Peggle 2! I can’t wait to play the rest of the series and see how they expand the groundwork laid here. I highly recommend this first entry, as it holds up as a genuinely fun and stylish experience even seventeen years later.
Visuals: 3.5/5
Sound: 4.5/5
Story: 2/5
Gameplay: 5/5
Replayability: 4.5/5
Overall Game Score: 4/5 [3.9/5]