Peggle Blast

Pay for lives

Game was fun until I ran out of lives on a needlessly difficult map and found out that you have to pay for lives or wait 30 minutes each time you retry the map

This is not Peggle.

I have been a Peggle player for most of my life. I have a combined playtime between Peggle Deluxe and Peggle Nights of about 500 hours. I say this to preface my main thought on this “Peggle Blast” game: this is Peggle in a skinsuit. It starts off okay; the artstyle is bland and generic, taking the original games’ art and reducing it in every way, but it’s technically fine enough. The first few levels are what you’d expect, as well. But the cracks form quickly. Here are the main issues: 1. The level gimmicks - This game is full of levels that aren’t designed to be completed with just your standard ball; they are meant to be played using limited powerup items that you need to pay real money for. The gimmicks in this game completely ruin it, making the point of the experience not about being fun and challenging, but instead being about frustrating the player enough to get out their credit card. The ice and sticky goo make you have to hit pegs 2-3 times to clear them, and the gem and egg hatch levels change the objective of the game entirely. These levels aren’t even about clearing all of the orange pegs. I was tepid about these new mechanics at first, when the level designs weren’t so egregious, but later on (around world 3 and 4), these gimmicks make the game borderline unplayable unless you use the powerups. They’re in practically every level once you get past the first few worlds, and again, these gimmick levels are designed around forcing the player into submission via frustration. This is coming from someone who earned every trophy and completed every challenge in the original Peggle games. Nearly all of the levels past the first few worlds are stupidly frustrating by design to get people to buy powerups. 2. The ads - The game is deceptive with these. The first 2 worlds don’t have ads, and it seems like a pleasant experience at first. Then, at the end of world 2, it starts throwing you an ad EVERY time you win or lose a level (and with how frustrating the level gimmicks are, you will be losing a lot). They get atrocious, and only appear after you play the first couple worlds, fooling you into thinking the game will be chill about these. In addition to the poorly designed levels, the ads just make the experience even worse. 3. No high scores - This, to me, is proof this game has no intention of being for people who actually enjoy Peggle. This game doesn’t keep track of any scores you get on each level, killing all replay value. What makes me continue going back to the first and second Peggle games are scoring systems, which encourage high-skilled players to return and master the games’ mechanics. There are challenge modes in the old games as well, which this is completely missing, too. Instead, we get a generic 3-star scoring system on each level, which is also impossible to complete on some later levels unless you use the paid powerups. There are a variety of other issues as well, like the writing and humor of the original games being distorted into bland mush, and no way to fast forward on levels to get a good shot when there are moving parts. Peggle Blast is not Peggle. It’s cheap and frustrating, especially to anyone who actually enjoys the old Peggle games. This was not made for them, or new players. The only reason I’m giving 2 stars in this review is because everything technically works, and there is some fun to be had in the first couple worlds, but the game intentionally tanks itself beyond that. If you like the core concept of this game and haven’t played the original games, they are easily available on PC through Steam, Xbox, or EA’s apps. Go look there to get games that are actually worth your time.