Peggle Nights
Platform: Download (Mac, Windows)
For many casual gamers, the word Peggle has become almost magical in nature. Last year's pachinko-style title from PopCap caught us by complete surprise with its blend of deliciously simple gameplay and subtle strategy coated in the glossy paint of a stellar presentation. Now, Peggle Nights has arrived with all-new levels, a new setting, and a handful of other extras, all ready to steal your time like few other games can.
If you're one of the few who missed out on the original Peggle, here's how things work. Each level is filled with an arrangement of colored pegs with a ball cannon situated top center. The objective is to clear the orange pegs from the board by hitting them with one of the ten balls you start with. Aim with the mouse (fine-tune your shots with the scroll wheel), fire, then kick back and watch the bounciness ensue. Clear out blue pegs to reach the orange ones, and keep an eye out for special purple and green pegs that grant extra points and special stage-specific abilities respectively.
The ball follows logical physics and bounces around the screen just like you'd expect it to, making strategy a subtle but gradually more integral part of the game. You can score free balls by racking up enough points during a single turn, or by getting the ball into the chute sliding on the bottom of the screen.
And now for the best part of the game: eliminating that last peg. The very first thing that captivated me about the Peggle series was the dramatic slow motion camera zoom that pulls in to watch the ball hit the final peg. A drum roll ensues, and Beethoven's Ode to Joy howls in the background. It's epic. Afterwards, the ball finishes its bouncing and settles in one of the point buckets that appear at the bottom of the screen.
Analysis: GAAAH, make me stop playing! Whatever casual magic PopCap infused in the original Peggle, Peggle Nights has it in droves. It's just as fun as the original, now with new levels, new Peggle Masters, a trophy room, and several challenge levels waiting to be beaten. The change of scenery is also nice, and the backgrounds in this game are nothing short of breathtaking.
The only real "disappointment" with Peggle Nights is that it's not a full-blown sequel. Peggle may have reinvented the hyper-addictive casual game, but Peggle Nights only walks down the same path. Don't expect anything different this time around, but the last time I checked, more Peggle was never a bad thing.
Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version
Mac OS X:
Download the demo
Order the full version
Peggle Nights is available to download from these affiliates:
Woot! Great news this is out, I'll be trying the demo right now.
For Mac users, although there will be a Mac version out within a month or two, the Windows version runs great in CrossOver Games. :)
Yaaaaay peggle!
"If you're one of the few who missed out on the original Peggle ..."
Thank you thank you thank you for not using the "unless you've been living under a rock" cliche.
While it's not exactly a revolutionary title, this sequel really does hit the spot for those Peggle cravings. I really like the new Peggle Master, her power is a lot of fun! I'm about two levels from the end, and I can't wait to see what the new challenges are (I'm assuming that's one up there in the top snapshot?). Thanks for the review!
I'm enjoying the game now. As artbegotti said, this isn't a revolution in Peggle, but it's loads of fun.
And I believe the first half of the loading music is the first few bars from
Clair de Lune from Suite Bergamasque, by Claude Debussy.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
No, will not get caught on this one.
I played the first one to death, solved all the "quests" and came dangerously close to finishing the final task of clearing all the levels (if that IS the final task).
I think I'm completely peggled out.
I got this one a few nights ago, and it's just as fun as the original! One thing I noticed is that in the statistics room it mentions
"Fairies Caught"
as one of the statistics... I can't wait to find out what that means!
Goodbye, productive weekend.
I don't know what it is about Peggle, but I was addicted from the first 10 minutes of playing the original. I'm glad at least a pseudo-sequel came out finally. Can't wait for a truly revamped, upgraded sequel!
On the topic of music, a couple things I'd like to mention... First, @Drench: You're right, that is the piece. I was blanking out for the name of the piece until I finally saw it listed in the credits.
Second, one thing that's bothered me about both Peggles so far is the in-game music. I'm not saying the music is bad, it's actually quite delightful. My gripe is that the music stays the same throughout the game. I truly think PopCap missed a great opportunity to throw another element of humor and fun in by not giving each character their own music set, rather than having the same five-or-so tracks loop for the entire duration. The place this really hit me was
Splork's bowling levels... How priceless would it have been to have switched over to a 50's big band swing piece here? And a rock theme during Hu's levels? PopCap missed out, man...
Zug,
I think your spoiler refers to:
The little green fireflies that fly around on the opening screen. I have noticed that you can chase them with the cursor, and have gotten a few to move off the screen temporarily. I don't know what you need to do to catch one.
Zug - got it:
By wiggling the cursor rapidly over the green lights on the title screen and clicking repeatedly, I was able to make them vanish with a little poof noise. This increments the "fairies captured" stat under the stats button. Have fun. %?)
So I just bought and beat it. It's fantastic.
... I'll be heading back to the challenges.
As a complete and utter Peggle addict, it didn't take even a moment's consideration before getting Peggle Nights. Awesome, awesome stuff. While it does stay very close to the path set by the original, the sequel has a few nice surprises (there are some challenges that I absolutely love, offering some truly wild gameplay, even if only for a single ball.) I should not have gotten it so soon though; I am 5 levels away from peg-clearing all levels in the original game, but the new version has completely stolen my time and attention.
@Jay,
At your recommendation I tried out CrossOver Games and things went pretty well. It took a bit of tweaking (which was expected) but I got it running. Thanks for the tip! Game runs perfect on my Mac notebook.
I found that the game doesn't deviate too much from the original formula. The theming feels much richer, and the levels are a bit more complex... but overall it's the same Peggle, which as stated in the review is nothing short of awesome.
I am at level 23 in the challenge mode. Game is "Peggle Lifestyle". You need 6 unique "Style Shots" to complete. There have been some tough levels, but I think this one is flat impossible. I have played at least 100 times and my best score is 4 of the 6 required. Anyone else get this one? I can't imagine the designers ever completed this either.
I haven't yet beaten the Peggle Lifestyle challenge, though I did get 5 of 6 and just need a twist of luck to win it.
I use Bjorn as my guide. A few are fairly easy to score if you have Bjorn:
Long Shot
Off the Wall
Free Ball Skills
Extreme Slide (if you hit the right-hand center column just right, it bounces over the left hand center column, hits a peg, then does an extreme slide down the left hand center column)
The luck part comes in getting the two greens positioned in such a way that you can hit them both in the same shot (can't remember the name of that style shot for Bjorn).
Another luck component (or very good skills) comes in handy - Lucky Bounce. I never seem to get lucky with both; if I get a lucky bounce, the pegs weren't set up right, or vice versa. I know with some sticktoitiveness, I can win it.
I, on the other hand, am struggling mightily with the challenges for scoring 850k and above with 3 balls. I think the challenges this time around are definitely harder than in the first game.
Having completed Adventure mode, completed all challenges, cleared all pegs, and aced all high scores, I am now an Ultra Extreme Grand Master at Peggle Nights, at the expense of many hours of lost time.
Jim, I tried at first to complete the six style shots challenge with Bjorn, hoping to get Off the Wall, Long Shot, Double Long Shot, Extreme Slide, and maybe Lucky Bounce and another random style shot. Never worked out.
I completed that one with Kat Tut. He's got two possible style shots: Pyramid Pickup and Eye of the Pyramid. I did it with those two, Off the Wall, Long Shot, Extreme Slide, and Mad Skillz. You can clear the four innermost slides with single shots, leaving you single pegs to complete the rest.
For the 750,000 level I used Bjorn Identity with Warren, saving the green pegs until the end and getting the triple score power up on the final bonus.
Clearing all the pegs on some of those final stages was hardcore, though. Shadowshine was obviously the roughest, but a few others gave me headaches as well.
Wow, has this game taken over my free time or what? I made it through the Adventure once, but I'm having trouble getting through the last screen this second time around. I'm also wondering how you catch faeries. Still, this was, like all the PopCap games I've played, well worth the $20.
I found out how to
catch the fairies. You have to click on the "fireflies" on the sign in screen. If you catch one, it pops and when you check your stats, you'll see you've caught a faery!
In the stats section, it lists "Faeries Captured" What is that? How do you capture faeries??
I found out how to capture faeries. I thought they were fireflys!
Hey
Probably some of you already found it but I got a ULTRASECRET Trophy. All you have to do is
play the Ode to Joy song with the main menu buttons (the song of Extreme Fever) I'll let you find the buttons yourself. Although it showed me the trophy but doesn't add to my trophy stats
See ya!
@manzana
The "Beethoven's ninth" easter egg
was already included in the original Peggle.
I'm almost done with Peggle nights. To be honest I can't wait to finish. It has taken up my cleaning and resposibility time to the max because it is so addicting. I could almost say it could be classified as a drug. I have cleared all challenges and I have one left to ace and clear 100%. The one I am stuck on is called Shadowshine. I have tried almost all characters and the closest I have gotten was with the Claude the crab. I was down to 3 left. Boy did that disturb me muchly. So if anyone could give some advice to help me get past this it would be great. I am getting fed up with this level and can't take it anymore.
Hehehe.
Thank you.
How do you ace the level called "last ball?"
I can't get it!! It's mainly all the moving balls that cause problems, I think.
Woohoo, after over 2 months, I have finally become the Ultra Extreme Grandmaster. Strangely, The Rising was the hardest level for me to clear, when I felt sure Shadowshine or Wyrm Sign would be the ones to give me the most pain.
As to how to ace Last Ball, I used Warren almost exclusively for acing, and tried to get a triple score on the second to last shot for each level. I am pretty sure that was how I aced Last Ball (which took a very long time for me to completely clear, by the way!)
Hey all!
http://www.popcap.com/extras/peggle/bonuslevels/
Happy Holidays!
Peggle Nights is now available for mac:
http://www.popcap.com/games/mac/peggle-nights
Loved the original, love this one. My trial time's run out, so now I'm off to buy it!
Well. There went four months of my life.
Besides the aforementioned "Rising" the toughest for clearing was "Jelly Jeopardy".
Congratulations to all who put this together.
Ultra Extreme Grand Master on three different computers (laptop, home, home office).
Thanks, too, for the bonus levels. Gives me something else to work on to avoid working.
The loading music at the start of the game is not Debussy but is Edvard Grieg - Morning Mood from Peer Gynt.
Update