Peggle

Yes, the name sounds silly. Yes, the concept sounds silly. Yes, the whole application sounds silly, but this game is very fun. If you need a time waster and you have some money to spend, get this app.

Quick Review (For those that are too lazy to read anything else)

Overall – 9/10

Price -$4.99

“Fun” Level – 9/10

Graphics – 9/10

Addictiveness – 9/10

“Interesting” Level – 9/10

Thorough Review (For those that want more information)

“Fun” Level – This game might sound silly at first. You shoot a ball and hit pegs? Big deal. However, whoever thinks like that is about to get a big surprise. When I first bought the app at 99 cents, I wasn’t expecting much. However, as soon as I opened the app, I changed my thinking. The loading screen itself caught my attention with the music playing and little sayings popping up. I have to admit I was very amused by some of the sayings, such as “Hoping things work,” “Getting coffee,” and “Playing with string.” At least they’re trying…When you get into the actual game itself, the first thing you do is create a profile. I always get annoyed when I have to create these profiles, even if I just have to type in my name, but the colorfulness of everything kept me going. After that, it’s Adventure Mode. Right off the bat I had troubles beating a level. I just couldn’t get the hang of all the angles, but I quickly figured it all out. This application is very fun for such a simple concept. The “Hallelujah” chorus at the end of each level gave me a great sense of achievement and it kept me going.

Graphics – Thank goodness this application had good graphics, or I would have given up before typing in my name…Well not really, but it still helped. The “Extreme Fever” and “ULTRA Extreme Fever” graphics really blew me away when I finished a level. Sure, they’re not perfect, but for an iPod Touch application, they’re absolutely amazing. There isn’t much more to say about this. Everything is worked out very well, but the high level of graphics causes the game to slow down at times (not talking about the slow-mo cam during the fevers).

Addictiveness – This game gets very addicting, which may be a good or bad thing. If you mess up on a level and don’t beat it, you just absolutely HAVE to retry and beat it, and once you beat it, you just have to go on. This continues until you beat the game, and after that there are even more things that you can do. You just don’t want to stop. I find this a good thing because it means the application is well made, but others may lose control and find it extremely hard to stop. The only reason why this didn’t get a 10/10 in my ratings is because you eventually get sick of it. If you don’t beat a level after about 15 tries (just a random number), you give up and put down your iPod or just get pissed off at it. Sure, it’s addicting, but it comes with it’s on “I’m-too-pissed-off-to-play-anymore” safety catch.

“Interesting” Level – There is so much to this game that you can explore. With so many Peggle Masters and so many levels, it’s a steal for the price if you think about it. You can strive to beat every level, beat every level with every single Peggle Master, or get 100% on each level or even get 100% with every single Peggle Master on EVERY SINGLE LEVEL! There are endless possibilities. And also, with challenge mode, you can go through each of the levels with extra orange pegs, a score goal, or even a ball limit to start out. There are many things you can do. You can also go against a friend or AI opponent in duel mode. This game just keeps on going and keeps you interested. However, like I said before, if you don’t get the hang of it, this game quickly gets boring and dull, but with so many good graphics, it’s rare that that would happen.

Popcap really pulled a stunt with this application. With a price of $0.99 (I bought at this price, thank goodness), the popularity soared sky high. Then came the price jump to $4.99, just to make money (that’s their goal in life, I guess). Even at the higher price, the game is a steal, with so many things to do and hours and hours of fun. I highly suggest this game to anyone that likes something simple to pass time with.