Peggle Review: Get Pegged for Fun on the iPhone

Developer PopCap Games knows how to create an addictive game, and “Peggle” is their highest quality drug. Since it‘s release on the PC in early 2007, “Peggle” has been ported to most platforms. “Peggle” has finally arrived for the iPhone and iPod Touch and it could not be better. 

The gameplay in “Peggle” is often described as Plinko from ?The Price is Right?, but with more complexity. Players are given ten shots to eliminate the orange pegs from each levels unique board design. The formula, while simple, is highly addictive and lots of fun.

 

The iPhone version of “Peggle” has many features that showcase the iPhone’s touch screen and accessibility. Touch anywhere on the screen to aim and then use the scroll wheel on the right to fine tune the shot. For more precision, double tap the screen to zoom in on a specific location and then use the scroll wheel to become perfectly aligned. There are some occasional freezes when removing your finger from the screen, but using the scroll wheel makes this a small issue.

“Peggle” has four game modes: adventure, quickplay, challenge, and duel. Adventure mode is the progression from level to level, while quickplay mode allows players to hone their skills on previously unlocked levels. Challenge mode is a great distraction from adventure mode. It offers eight sets of goals divided through more difficult versions of the 40 levels in “Peggle.” 

 

Duel mode is the multiplayer element of the game and allows players to pit themselves against another human or an AI character. While Internet play would be great, the local pass-the-iPhone play serves fine. “Peggle” is not a game that needs multiplayer.

 

“Peggle” also allows players to save replays of their best shots. Players can touch the replay button after a shot and then watch it anytime from the main menu.

There are player statistics that are not very useful, and the high score board is not connected to any Internet source. It’s simply default names with arbitrary scores assigned to them. The all-time player stats are interesting for a quick glance, but it’s a bummer that the adventure mode stats are erased after completion because it makes the overall stats become worthless.

 

The iPhone version of “Peggle” does not change anything about the game, and the exclusion of the “Peggle Nights” expansion seems like an odd omission. Still, for $4.99, “Peggle” is not a game to pass up. iPhone users who have never played “Peggle” should not hesitate to buy it up, and “Peggle” fans should especially consider buying it if they do not own it on another mobile platform.

 

Rating: A

Platform: iPhone and iPod Touch

Also available: PC, Mac, Xbox Live, Nintendo DS, Mobile Phones

Price: $4.99

ESRB: E

Note: Images courtesy of PopCap Games

Patapon 2 review: Don’t Look Into Their Eyes

The charming black eyed patapons are back. “Patapon” was my favorite original title for PSP last year. “Patapon” had “Loco Roco’s” infectious music disguising a deep rhythm and strategy game. “Patapon 2” features new units, commands, mini-games, weather effects and a leveling system. 

The story continues after “Patapon.” It’s still your job as god to lead the patapons to the land of Earthend. However, the patapons become shipwrecked and are forced into battle with the Karmens. The enemies from the first game, the zigotons, return to help the patapon’s with their fight.

The gameplay in “Patapon 2” is simple. Each face button is a different drum and pressing them in specific orders to the beat will command your army to move, attack, defend and retreat. Later commands make the patapons charge their power or jump. Chaining four or five commands will cause the patapons to enter fever mode and raise their attack rate and critical damage dealt.

Up to four units, including the hero patapon, can enter battle. Missions range from gathering resources to destroying enemy camps and bosses, and customizing the patapons’ weapons and formation is important because of the game’s trial and error gameplay. Shield men in front of archers and spear men  is a good strategy.

“Patapon 2” allows you to revive patapons for free and does not penalize you for failing missions . This helps with the trial and error gameplay because sometimes the game does a bad job of hinting where to find necessary miracles to complete missions.  

Combat feels refreshed because of new units like robopons, mahopons, toripons and the hero patapon. Robopons wield gauntlets and hurl boulders, while mahopons are wizards and summon elemental damage. Toripons are the air unit and avoid most damage except from weather effects and archers. Old units from “Patapon” are also available.

The hero patapon is the most versatile unit because he can transform into any patapon unit available. Timing commands perfectly and entering fever mode will make the hero perform devastating attacks, and each attack is unique to the unit the hero is mimicking. 

If your Hero is a kibapon, he will constantly ram his spear into enemies for few seconds or more. If he is a dekapon, he will recklessly swing his mace around. These attacks helped me win numerous times by changing the flow of the battle.  

There are over 100 masks in the game and changing the hero’s mask will give him affects like higher resistance to fire or a higher attack rate, but you have to play the new multiplayer mode to unlock them.

You can play multiplayer with three friends over ad-hoc or with the computer and the purpose is to hatch eggs found in single player. The reward is either a heroes’ mask or a computer hero to use in multiplayer. Beating the boss that gave you the egg within a time limit and completing a rhythm mini-game hatches the egg, but most mask and computer heroes are not worth the repetitious experience.

The emphasis in “Patapon 2” is on evolving your patapons rather than what weapons they wield. This allows you to level up and specialize specific patapons to deal more critical damage, have a higher resistance to elemental damage and more. “Patapon 2” uses a spear grid system similar to the one from “Final Fantasy X,” but the difference is you have to unlock the same nodes for each individual unit and patapon. So you are repeating the same process 15 times or more if you choose to keep evolving your patapons. 

The manual does not explain evolution well and I unlocked toripons near the end of the game. It's not clear about finding some secret units on the grid as opposed to others.

Unlike in “Patapon,” the mini-games make gathering resources like hide, vegetables, minerals, fangs and money to unlock nodes and evolve patapons easier. “Patapon 2” also allows money and resources from “Patapon” to be transferred.

Levels are more diverse in “Patapon 2” and weather plays a larger role during battles. Constant freezing from blizzards or periodic stuns from lightening in thunderstorms are enough to give the enemy or yourself the advantage.  Luckily these effects can used or negated using miracles.

Miracles like the rain miracle negate fog and cool the desert sand, while the tailwind miracle changes the direction of the wind. Other new miracles include creating earthquakes, blizzards and thunderstorms.

The music is still entertaining will keep you playing with a smile. While the PSP's speakers work well, “Patapon 2” is meant to be played with headphones. 

A major fault carrying over from “Patapon” is not being able to pause. Missions range from 2 minutes to 15 minutes or more and the only way to “pause” is to put the PSP into sleep mode. 

“Patapon 2” is only offered as a downloadable title on the PlayStation Network and you will receive a redemption code if you buy the boxed copy. “Patapon 2” is 362 megabytes and saves to the Memory Stick Duo. The process was easy and took around 14 minutes to download on my wi-fi connection.  

“Patapon 2” is an improvement over “Patapon,” but the evolution grid and multiplayer feel like good ideas implemented wrong. The new units and enemies make combat more engaging. “Patapon 2” still manages to keep me smiling and chanting PATA PATA PATA PON. The charming characters, new units,  twice as long experience and lively music make “Patapon 2” a steal at $20.

Rating: B+

System: PSP>PlayStation Network

Price: $19.99

ESRB: E

Note: Images the PlayStation Blog