Are you looking for an addictive, stupid, but totally fun time waster for your PC? This may be what the insomniac is looking for.
I have only heard about Peggle (the first one), so I can’t really speak on differences or improvements, but I can say that Peggle Nights seems to play much like what I’ve heard the first Peggle was like. It’s like an acid rainbow trip, with unicorns while on the Prices Right, playing Plinko.
First off, the basics of the game play, boils down to shooting a ball from the top of the screen, hitting as many objects as you can by bouncing off of them and making them disappear. You start with a set number of balls with the opportunity to earn more as the level progresses. If you remove (hit) all the reddish-orange objects before you run out of balls, you pass that level. There are bonuses for the challenge hungry if you clear the entire screen of all objects. Each level is run by a psychedelic animal of some sort which translates to the green objects having a different ‘magic’ power than other levels. The powers vary, but a couple of examples would be your ball splitting into 2 balls when a green object is hit, or the ball rematerialized at the top of the screen for a second chance or even obtaining crab claws as pinball flippers to help keep the ball in play.
There is a basket at the bottom of the screen that moves back and forth and can catch the ball for reuse. Hitting the basket appears to be just blind luck to me, but perhaps the physics and proper angles and timing can be worked out by someone more adept than me.
There are 60 boards for play, and the “Adventure Mode” really isn’t very hard, but the “Challenge Mode” has some devilishly tricky objectives. This should extend the play to a more than satisfactory length. As silly as this game is, I can’t deny the total, mind-numbing fun. The best part, for me, was the overly exciting celebration and slow motion fireworks for completing a level. It’s utterly ridicules, but it just feels so damn good. Pop Cap has made another hit. It is most certainly worth a trial version, and maybe even a purchase.
Peggle Nights, from Pop Cap games for the PC gets the Official Gamers Pub ranking of…
Look, even Spidy likes it!