I love pegging

➕Addicting gameplay
➕Multiple modes of play (Adventure/challenges/duel)
➕Many characters, each with a unique ability

🔹Could desperately use achievements

➖Terrible technical side
➖Randomized special peg locations can really screw you

Note: I used the excellent Lossless Scaling software for this review to help with the graphical/technical issues. You can find my review for LS here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/993090/Lossless_Scaling/

Game world is pretty much your typical pinball setup but with randomized peg colors on a specific peg layout over artwork. There’s a good amount of game modes as well as levels, something like ~60 different levels.

There is no real narrative, its pinball ffs.

Peggle has always had addicting “One more level” gameplay, despite its simplicity. I mean, all you really do is aim a ball and hope that luck helps you with direction.
After the adventure mode, if you do challenges, the only real choice is figuring out which character works best within the challenges rules.


Terrible. Badly needs an update or simple remaster for modern system.s The only graphical option is full screen or windowed. The resolution appears to be something ridiculously small at like 400 or 600. It was almost unplayable until I used Lossless Scaling to upscale it from windowed mode. Not perfect, but much better than out of the box options.
Other than the terrible graphics, I encountered no bugs.
i9-13900KF | RTX 4090 | 64GB RAM | 1440p @ 240hz | Windows 11 installed on SSD

Nothing special. Music is okay. Bleeps and bloops are pleasant. Ending stage music is still the best.

Some decent replay value with the amount of stages as well as dueling via local keyboard swapping. I don’t often say this with games, but Peggle is a prime candidate for achievements. It could really use a ton of achievements. Also, I know this is an older game, but online play/leaderboards would be great.

What’s there to really say about Peggle? At this point it's almost like modern Tetris.

My biggest negative is by far the ancient graphical limitations. I don’t see this ever being addressed unless PopCap comes back from the dead or EA revives this IP, so it is what it is.

The biggest positive to me is the near timeless gameplay. Peggle is the textbook example of low skill floor but high skill ceiling. Due to the innate random possibilities of the ball, you can make some absolutely ridiculous plays just from aiming and shooting. Likewise, timing shots for free balls or landing the perfect bank shot is such a dopamine rush.

Peggle deserves better. Maybe the comparison to Tetris is a bit much since there is no level design requirement in Tetris, but I still feel like it's a good game that is left behind by the sands of time and the greed of EA. I think I picked up two Peggle games on Steam for around ~$2. Absolutely worth it at that price.

You can find my curator page here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Synik_GR

this gem got me through many boring hours of school. it's noncommital simplicity makes it great for playing while you're doing other stuff, or pretending to do other stuff. 10/10