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: