Peggle Nights Review
Posted on September 16, 2008 - Filed Under Casual Gaming, Review, popcap |
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Last year Popcap developed Peggle, a title which received 2007 casual game of the year and dozens of media and industry accolades. Now, Popcap has produced the next game in the Peggle series called Peggle Nights. If you’ve never played Peggle, you can read a full review of the game as it will apply to Peggle Nights as well.
It’s tough to think Popcap can improve upon a sleeper success but it just might be possible. Peggle Nights brings back the famous Peggle masters with their classic power-up moves and increases the master count by one with a new Squid Peggle master known as “Marina.” In this installment, you’ll experience another 60 newly designed levels with five stages per Peggle master, this time with a “dream world” theme.
Peggle Nights is as close to an expansion as you can get without directly calling it an expansion. At first glance, you’ll probably say to yourself “this is Peggle with new levels” and, for the most part, you’re on the right track. Popcap stuck to the magic that made the first title a hit, including the same characters, the same game play elements and the same addictive quality.
Our first impressions were a bit lack luster as we spent time looking for how the game differs from the original. Six or so stages into the the game it started to grab our attention much like the original title did, causing everything from addictive shakes and strong desires to continue playing. Peggle Nights matures the level design greatly, stages are crisp artwork backgrounds with many animated pegs and bricks which you’d only find in later tough stages in the original game.
The second difference you’ll find in Peggle Nights comes with the “Ace” achievement, which you’ll receive on a stage when you’ve beat its high score. Where the master levels in Peggle gave you trophy’s for defeating the goals of the stages, Peggle Nights also gives you trophy’s while playing through the standard adventure campaign; yet another reason to sit on the couch and play.
As you’re playing, you may find yourself racking up high scores with new style shots like “Off the Wall,” “Double Long Shot,” “Extreme Slide!” and other methods of point building bringing you closer to those trophy achievements. Peggle Nights brings another sixty challenges to complete, a great addiction once you’ve mastered your abilities in the Adventure mode. Sixty fresh levels, sixty fresh challenges, another new Peggle master and an all new sound track summarizes a good chuck of the content in Peggle Nights.
For those that want to show off, and we’ve noticed YouTube is a great place to showcase your crazy shots and level clearage, you can drag-n-drop your top shot replays into the game window to view them (or for youtube gloating?) A few other power-ups have been enhanced a bit to make them more effective, some of these subtle changes won’t be readily noticed to new Peggle players but those experienced gamers may pickup on it quickly as they’ve logged dozens of hours on Popcaps addictive casual game.
Marina, the new master has a great new power-up ability called “Shockwave,” which will electrically charge the first peg you hit and “ground” the power to the basket which scrolls upon the bottom of the screen. When you fire your ball the electrical charge hits the peg and works its way down in a fairly linear fashion to the basket and decimates all pegs in its way. This new innovative peg destruction is probably the best power-up we’ve seen in Peggle.
Like other casual game companies, Popcap is starting to lean towards in-game downloadable content in the form of level packs. Although we didn’t have any level packs to play around with in the review, the future expandability gives us new hope and possibilities to extend the life of our Peggle Nights title. This release, much like the original, also holds the USD $19.95 price tag, available now on Popcap’s website.
Will Peggle Nights change the world of casual games more than the original Peggle did? Not really. Will it re-invigorate your interest in the Peggle franchise and keep you up late at night with only the dim glow of your monitor illuminating the room? You bet. Peggle Nights is a new family tradition in our home, each night my five year old daughter finishes dinner and asks, “can we play that Peggle game, the one with the moon?”
From five years old to fifty years old, Peggle Nights expands upon a franchise that has more downloaded copies of their game than blockbuster titles like Grand Theft Auto IV have total sales. Their latest game builds upon the original, adds some additional features, enhances some older play styles and shows mature growth in the Peggle series with expertly designed levels with constant challenge without undying frustration.
Trial or buy it now!
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