I haven’t always been drawn to games like Peggle, where you’re mostly a spectator, watching events unfold. The passive nature of these games doesn’t quite match my usual gaming preferences. However, when Peglin made a surprise debut on the Nintendo Switch following a Nintendo Direct, I couldn’t resist checking it out. I wondered if it might offer a similar idle game allure that might captivate me. Having become more acquainted with pinball-type games, I thought Peglin could potentially bridge the gap. While it didn’t completely win me over to the pachinko side of things, its core mechanics did have a way of pulling me back for another round of launching balls at foes.
If the concept sounds familiar, that’s because Peglin is a roguelike indie game. The premise is to defeat all adversaries in a given area, gradually upgrading your weapons and moveset, before facing off against formidable bosses. Peglin doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, laying out its gameplay plainly for newcomers. Its art style, reminiscent of Microsoft Paint with its pixel art, might not appeal to everyone, but it effectively serves its purpose. A diverse array of enemies and locations ensures that your journey through Peglin remains engaging.
The gameplay is where Peglin will either hook you or lose you. The game revolves around firing an orb at a board studded with pegs. Each peg hit increases the damage your orb will deal to the enemies above. Your influence over the board is limited primarily to the direction from which you launch your orb. Special pegs offer various benefits like more coins, increased damage, critical hits, or other attack enhancements. After each round, you can choose to purchase new orbs to add to your arsenal, which gets reshuffled with every encounter. Alternatively, you can strengthen your existing orbs. There’s a myriad of fun combinations and items to discover on your journey that enhance your orbs’ power, offering a well-balanced mix. For instance, I stumbled upon an item granting me a multiball effect, duplicating every orb fired, but restricting my shots to specific directions. This give-and-take dynamic makes certain battles particularly challenging but immensely satisfying when conquered, especially against bosses who alter your board by adding sticky obstacles or summoning new enemies.
My personal experience with Peglin is somewhat mixed. On one side, the thrill of launching orbs and racking up damage was a delight, akin to playing pinball. Conversely, the game’s passive nature left something to be desired. Once an orb is fired, strategic involvement is minimal. You can choose which item your attack will target, which is crucial in boss fights or when swamped by enemies, but that’s largely the extent of it. The lack of comprehensive tutorials to explain the mechanics and extra actions further distances you from feeling fully engaged. It was embarrassingly late in the game when I realized you can discard orbs to expedite the return of those dealing elemental damage to specific enemies. For a game intended to be easily accessible, I found myself plotting strategies more than actively playing, which felt like a significant hurdle.
Being a roguelike, Peglin involves a substantial amount of randomness. Often, I’d find myself stymied by battles I felt confident I could win. This was partly due to the difficulty of healing between encounters or simply because my effective attacks missed the critical hit pegs necessary for maximum damage. Each run forces you to start anew, with no permanent upgrades to attacks. The furthest I reached felt less a testament to my skills and more a stroke of luck. This aspect can deter some players, leading me to set the game aside for stretches of time. Yet, I found myself repeatedly drawn back, unable to resist the simple, addictive challenge of seeing if I could progress further with each attempt at shooting orbs at those pegs.
Ultimately, Peglin isn’t a game for everyone. Its combination of roguelike elements and reliance on luck as a major factor in game completion took a while to win me over. The lack of clear explanations and limited board interaction left me occasionally frustrated. Nevertheless, the great game at its heart had me returning time and again. When you nail the right combination of attacks and elemental damage, it’s immensely satisfying to bring down bosses in just a few hits. Although the learning curve might be steep for some, once you get into the swing of things, it’s hard to stop. Peglin might very well become one of those enduring background games that players consistently revisit. I can’t predict the future, but I have a feeling Peglin might stick around for quite a while yet.
