In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. So it must be that in the valley of internet flash games, PopCap is king. Games like Bejeweled and Bookworm have helped the brand become ubiquitous – no small task on the world wide web. But then again, PopCap has had a Bill-Gates-like ability to push forward and succeed. That is to say, they stole everything they could get their hands on. Zuma was ripped almost verbatim from a Japanese puzzler and games like Bonnie’s Bookstore and Chuzzle are essentially glorified clones of their own successful in-house titles.

Today, I’m here with a review of their current #1 title, and one of their more recent releases, Peggle Deluxe. But if you’ve played PopCap games then you know that a lot of what I’m about to cover is applicable to most of their releases.

Peggle plays like a combination of Pachinko (or Plinko, for Bob Barker fans) and Breakout with a Bust-A-Move cherry on top. In the game’s own words, it’s “like a game where there’s a ball and you hit it with flippers”. You have ten shots to clear a given level of all “orange” pegs. You’re rewarded for high scoring shots (or shots that hit a moving target that constantly pans back and forth at the bottom of the screen) with an extra ball. Each level has one of ten Arkanoid-reminiscent special abilities that help you achieve this goal. At first glance, the game looks pretty complicated by PopCap standards. And while there are a couple of subtleties to discover about the scoring system, it’s actually like most other PopCap games in that it takes only around fifteen seconds to learn and about fifteen minutes to become addicted. They should really think about changing the brandname to PopCrack.

Like most PopCap titles, it features a couple different modes of play. Adventure Mode actually plays like an extended tutorial, where you learn to use every special ability in the game before a final challenge round. Once you’re done with Adventure Mode, the other modes allow you to choose the special ability that you prefer for a board. You should be able to tackle this in a day or two easily – and you’ll need to since the other modes all need unlocking to at least some degree. Quick Play simply allows you to practice individual boards that you’ve already beaten. Duel Mode puts in a competitive angle where you can play against another person (which is kind of silly because they have to be in the same room) or a computer (which is kind of silly because it’s not as fun). In short, Duel Mode is really a wasted opportunity for Netplay, but at least it’s a change of pace. Finally, Challenge Mode offers a number of different tasks from earning high scores to completing levels with only two shots. This is where the game gets really tough – and interesting. A lot of time could be spent here earning some hard fought lunch hour bragging rights.

Par for the PopCap course in Peggle are the colorful, yet shamefully low-res graphics and an overall game design that looks like it was headed up by your tacky aunt who collects lawn ornaments and holiday-themed sweaters. I was half surprised not to see my fourth grade teacher in the credits for this game. There’s also a couple of recycled SFX and two strange choices of public domain music that don’t really fit with the rest of the soundtrack. The ridiculous magical characters who guide you through the “Peggle Institute” walk a fine line between over-the-top and unintentional humor. Mercifully, there’s no real story to speak of so the personalities don’t come into play much. The replay feature of Peggle is easily the best addition that it boasts over its other PopCap siblings. The ability to keep records of your best shots for re-viewing will save you the trouble of wide-eyed explanations to your co-workers about how they JUST WON’T BELIEVE THIS AWESOME SHOT I JUST MADE MAN!

It’s no secret that PopCap makes their games simple and addictive – the surprise is that you’ll still get hooked knowing all this in advance. Part of the beauty of what PopCap does is that they don’t pretend to want to compete with “real” games. No gamer in his right mind is going to opt for Peggle over Gears of War. But then you’ve got a few spare minutes and end up saying to yourself: “Ah, I’ll just play a little Peggle before loading up WOW for the night.” Four hours later you’re still guiding a little ball around magic pegs while your clanmates are wondering where the hell you are.

PopCap may be a one-trick pony, but damn they do that trick well, and we keep on wanting to see it. Peggle will give you a strong feeling of having been there and done that all before, but it will give you an even stronger feeling of wanting to do it again. So pick it up if you need to kill a couple of minutes…just a couple more minutes….I’m serious…one more round…just a few more minutes…

3 out of 4 Joysticks Up

-DS