iPhone App: Peggle

July 25th, 2009

= 5 stars

Launch a steel ball into an array of pegs, walls, and other assorted objects. Hitting a peg or a wall removes it from play. Remove as many as you can (in particular, the orange ones) before you run out of balls.

The Good

With such a simple premise, it’s important to get the details right, and Peggle pegs it. The ball has a satisfying weight and gravity as it ricochets off a myriad of obstacles. There’s just something primally satisfying about a heavy balls hitting small objects (pinball, billiards, pachinko – not what you were thinking).
Tons of variety is added through a variety of targets: moving objects, power-ups, sound effects, and bonus points. Later levels add platforms and even pinball-style flippers. Pretty much every time I thought about taking a break, the next level had something cool to keep me going.
Great graphics. During “fever” mode, fireworks sparkle around the ball, a shaft of light emerges from the occasional holes that appear at the bottom of the screen, and a bonus of a green trajectory guide is even cool. Notice how the animal mascots’ eyes watch your shooter’s position.
The iPhone’s touch screen is utilized for fine control. Tap the screen to aim the gun in a general direction, but there’s also a control strip to the right which allows for finer control. You can double tap the screen to zoom in, and there’s even a fast-forward button so you don’t have to wait for all the moving stuff to get in a particular position. All this comes in handy to make that perfect shot.

The Bad

Would be nice to fire more than one ball into the playing field at once. A bad strategy, but it would be amusing to fire multiple balls in there and have them ricochet off each other.
Might cause digital addiction and you’re soon chattering to a cartoon gopher in your dreams about pins, cats, lobsters, and Beethoven.

Conclusion

Addicts beware – this is hook city. Alongside Trism, Drop7, and Bejewled, currently on the first tab of apps on my iPhone. Highly recommended.

iTunes App Store Link: