Leveling criticism at Peggle is eas. Its cutesy aesthetic is akin to Lisa Frank on uppers. It's control scheme borders on "non-existent" and has one foot in "good luck". It is short on content, the power ups are inconsistent, unbalanced, and many seem to have been created by the question: "Does anyone else have any more ideas? Yeah? Okay, put it in the game!"
Now that I got all that out of the way, I will tell you that none of those criticism (or any other you care to come up with) mean a lick. Not one iota.
Peggle is this: a puzzle game, where the player has minimal interaction with the puzzle. A ball is released into a field of pegs and the player must eliminate all the randomly assigned red pegs. Along the way, power ups help to clear these pegs out, either directly or indirectly by giving the opportunity to acquire more lives so that the player has more balls to throw at the puzzle.
Peggle has distilled game designed philosophy to its pure essence and laid it bare for all to marvel. Take a goal, give the player calculated means to get there, and heap immediate positive reinforcement on at every turn. Exponetially increasing point combos? Yes. Slow motion finishes? Yes. Fantastic runs, lucky bounces, and feats of of incredible improbability are regular occurances. In short, Popcap has designed a formula in which every action begets another action. Failure? Just one more ball. Success? Keep it going.
In short, the player does little, gets fantastic results, and if they don't, well... it doesn't hurt to have... just... one... more... turn...
And every turn is, counter to every you may know from playing games in 2009, is incredible fun, rewarding, and addictive. Even if you have to suffer through a Saturday Morning orgy of colour and unicorns.
