Game Quicky: Peggle (PC) ~ Shoot Those Pegs

 

Official website

It’s so disappointing that the sequel to this game only released on XBOX ONE. But wait, I’m getting way ahead of myself. I should take a look at this game first… PopCap, the creators of Bejeweled and Plants VS Zombies, created Peggle in 2007. It has been ported to various systems. Even to systems I have never heard about. But hey, that’s beside the point. It’s time to take a look at Peggle, a game I played on both the PC and the DS. But in this article, I’m going to take a look at the PC version. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on this article and/or the game in the comment section down below. 

The good

Peggle is a pretty simple game. You have a board with different colored bricks, called pegs in this game. The goal is that you hit every orange peg with a limited amount of balls. You get 10 balls for each level, but by scoring a lot of points or landing in the bucket at the bottom of the screen you earn an extra shot.

The game is simple and easy to understand. This makes it quite addictive in my opinion. It’s a fun game to play for a little while and sometimes you can keep playing this game for hours.

You can also record each shot you make, to show off to your friends afterwards. But this isn’t implemented perfectly.

The visuals and presentation are pretty nice. I loved how each character had a theme and the levels stuck with it. The level design felt natural. There were no levels that felt forced to fit a certain theme.

After you have beaten all the levels, an additional challenge mode unlocks. Depending on how your board spawns, these can be easy or really hard.

The two player mode is also really nice. You can take turns to shoot, but here is the catch… You play on the same board. So, you need to plan your shoots well. Since if you make an opening for your opponent… Well, then you can kiss your points goodbye.

The difficulty of this game is really well done. The first levels of a character are rather easy to get you used to their style and power-up… But their final levels really put your skills to the test.

The bad

While the gameplay is really fun… It can be rather frustrating. The placing of the orange pegs is random each and every time. So this means that it sometimes comes down to luck.

I remember that I had to repeat one level 15 times before I could beat it. And when I played the level a second time a few years later, I was able to beat it on the first try.

The current Steam version offers no widescreen support. This can ruin some parts of the visuals on wide screen monitors.

Earlier, I talked about the recording of your shots. Well, the big issue here is that you can’t easily share them. You have to watch them in-game. I haven’t found another real easy way to upload them to for example YouTube or any other platform.

Also, since this game is on Steam, why can’t you challenge your Steam friends in the two player mode? Because it’s local play only.

The Steam port has so much potential but in the end, it’s nothing more than a port of the original version.

And honestly, I feel like there is nothing more wrong with this game. The biggest issue I have with this game is that due to the randomness, you can get stuck on one level for far too long.

If you are reading this PopCap, remake this game for Steam. Tweak and polish this game up and give this a release. Since this one of your best games you ever made!

Final thoughts

So, this game is really fun to play for a short burst. But since this game is almost 10 years old now… It’s missing some polish.

I really recommend this game to every gamer who loves high scores and/or a fun casual game.

If this game was a little bit less random, it would be perfect!

So, if I would give this game a score, it would look like this:

8/10.

So,  it’s time to wrap up this article. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to welcome you in another article on my blog but until then; have a great rest of your day and game on~!

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Gamer’s Thoughts: How do I write my first impressions and reviews?

I have written a lot of first impressions and game reviews. In today’s article, I’m going to talk about how I create one of those articles. Consider this article as a sort of “behind the screens” look into my creative process. How I try to get an article ready every week. The focus of this article will be how I analyze a game. How I look at it’s nuts and bolts and how I translate that to words. In any case, feel free to leave a comment with how you prepare for your articles and/your thoughts. So, I hope you are ready since here we go! 

Preparations

Personally, picking a subject for the article is one of the hardest parts to me. I have a lot of ideas but often I change my mind at the last minute.

Quite common is that I write an article about the game I have been playing recently. It’s easier since the memories of the game are quite fresh in my mind.

Sometimes, when I don’t have an idea; I look around in my collection for a game to take a look at. And when I don’t feel like writing about a certain game, I try to find an interesting subject to write about. In most cases, I write an article in one of my series like Gaming Nostalgia, Gamer’s Thoughts or Gaming Music.

When I decided which game I’m going to talk about, I start playing it. I always have my tablet or a notebook close to me. Truth to be told, I don’t take many notes. Since I feel that writing an article with the impressions you have gives a stronger article.

So, my notes are mostly things that I don’t want to forget. Like certain moments or certain frustrations.

This way I find that you can give a more general impression of the game. This way I can focus more on the game instead of going too much in depth about one aspect.

The research part

So, right before I start writing the article, I thinking of a good title and look up some other articles about the game.

I always give my own opinion on my blog. Even while other critics disagree with me. Besides, I’m not that good of a liar anyways.

But, it’s always interesting to see what other people write about the game. It gives me another angle on the game. It can also give me some ideas on how I should write the article.

It also gives me some background information about the game. This is rather helpful for finishing the article. To check if all my facts are correct. Also, I’m extremely interested in the history of gaming and the development. So, yeah…

The analyzing of the game

Story

How does one judge a story? Well, that’s very tricky. I used to write a lot of stories in the past. But nowadays, I write a lot about games.

So, I look at a story in a very different way. I look at how it’s written, how it’s structured, how it draws in the player and how it actually works. A good story must make you smile here and there and/or put you on the edge of your seat.

In my early gaming days, I used to never play games without a story. When a game didn’t have a story, I skipped it. With some exceptions like Tetris and Pac-Man of course.

The story is something that is the most important to me in a game. The better the story is, the more fun I have playing the game.

Presentation

The presentation of a game is something I can look past that, to a certain extent. I honestly don’t really care of some enemies are generic. I see it as a positive if they try to do something new with it.

Yet, there are two aspects of the presentation that I pay a lot of attention to. That are the menus and the controls.

A menu in a game should be easy to navigate. Also, a certain task shouldn’t require a “million” clicks before you can perform it.

And about the controls, it’s quite self-explanatory I think. Would you play a game with bad controls? Controls that work against you? Not a lot of people would enjoy themselves!

Difficulty

I love games that are challenging but aren’t too difficult. The more brutal a game is, the less fun I have with it.

Don’t understand me wrong here. There is nothing wrong with difficult games, I just don’t like them.

Truth to be told, reviewing the difficulty of a game is pretty tricky. Something that I find difficult in a game can be easy for somebody else. And it can work in the other way too.

Music and sound

The music of a game is quite important to me. The prove of that is the fact that I write a series about gaming music. Sometimes, some of my favorite songs are actually my ringtone.

At work, I listen to a lot of gaming music as well. Since it helps me concentrate. But in some cases, it can be a distraction since the memories come back from the game.

That’s why I listen to the soundtrack of the game while I’m reviewing or writing the first impression of a game. It helps me remember the game. 🙂

Closing off

So, yeah. I hope you enjoyed reading this article. I tried to give a general idea how I make my articles. If you guys and girls want to know more, feel free to leave me a comment. Maybe could turn in a new article.

While I love writing articles like these, I love writing about games more. This makes it quite hard to pin down exactly what I look at while reviewing or writing a “first impression” article.

In any case, before I ramble too much… I think it’s time to wrap up this article. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it! I hope to welcome you another time on my blog but until then, take care! Have a great rest of your day.

First Impression: Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon (3DS) ~ So Close…

Official site

I’m a big fan of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. I dare to say it’s one of my favorite Pokémon spin-offs ever made. A few weeks ago, Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon released here in Europe and I have played it, but not yet finished it. Is this is good or a bad sign? Well, it’s time to take a look at this game. Since this game gets a very mixed reception. Is it a mediocre game or is it more then that? And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article. 

Short game?

When I reviewed the previous 3DS entry, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon – Gates To Infinity, I first wrote a rather lengthy rant about it. It had added a lot of features while cutting a few amazing ones. But thankfully, most of those are back in this game.

Something I applaud Nintendo and ChunSoft for in this game is that the personality quiz is back, but it’s optional. This is the perfect way of making both worlds happy. I loved the personality quiz and love to roleplay in the game. Yet, I do understand that some people don’t like it and want to play as their favorite Pokémon. So, now they can do that more easily.

The story of this game is rather interesting. The main plot is that Pokémon are turning into stone. But there is a big problem with the story. While that is going on, the story you play is the story of the main character. The story is something I’m happy and disappointed with at the same time. The writing is solid and the characters are memorable, but at the other hand, I feel that some story arcs don’t receive enough attention.

The biggest issue I have is that I get the impression that this game is pretty short. Notice the word “impression” here. Like in previous titles, this game shows the already defeated bosses on your file before you load it. I have still to defeat two bosses and I have put 14 hours into it.

The game has 20 chapters, I’m now at chapter 14. But, I haven’t done every quest and mission that there is in this game. So, the main story is rather short but the actual game is pretty lengthy. I have seen 70 out of the 720 Pokémon in the game. This means that the story doesn’t have too much filler story. Which is a shame in my eyes, but I see it appeal to some people. Just keep that in mind.

Less cuts

This game is a hybrid between the DS and 3DS titles. The hunger system is back, but with a twist. When your belly is full and you eat perfect apples, you gain more health in that dungeon. Also, when you heal using a berry, your belly fills a little bit. Also, you can take multiple quests at once again. This was one of my biggest issues with the previous game.

But this game brings also some really nice features to the table. You can change your name mid game! Yes, when you named your ally, your ex-girlfriend’s name for example… You can change that.

Also, this game has a more expansive feel. In the middle of the game, you get access to Lapras. This Pokemon can take you to other islands. Each island is themed. Not only the dungeons, but the town accompanying it as well.

This game has the features the previous game should have had. I haven’t talked about every feature in this game, since that’s something you should discover yourself. I haven’t talked about the new party customization features or the special powerups you can have.

Anyways, the visuals in this game are pretty amazing. The world and the characters are quite colorful and the game gives off a happy and fun mood. But be warned, this game has a few moments that can pull at your emotional hart-strings. One of those moments happened on a pretty crowed public train. Yeah…

The worlds pop out and this game has pretty well done 3D effects. The animation is also pretty well done. I rarely encountered frame drops. This game runs pretty smooth alright.

Yet, so close…

The biggest flaw in this game are the controls. Don’t get me wrong, this game controls pretty amazingly but they made some pretty awkward decisions for this game.

Some buttons have multiple functions. When you aren’t used to the controls, be prepared to make a couple of wrong moves.

One thing I’m quite on the fence about is the pushing mechanic. While this helps you move allies over a wonder tile when their stats have dropped, you can do that with leader switching feature. I don’t see a lot of use for the pushing mechanic. Also, it drains your belly quickly.

This game has a an amazing soundtrack. Some boss themes are slowly becoming my favorites. The soundeffects are quite good as well. Only minor issue is that when you use a team attack, it overpowers the music.

At the other hand, the menu design is quite well done. When you use your attacks, you can easily see which ones are going to be effective and which ones not.

The last thing I want to talk about is the AI in this game. The AI of your allies has some nice improvements. When there is an item in the room you are in, your ally is going to get it for you. Also, when you are low on HP, your ally can use it’s turn to heal you. This tweak is one of the best additions to the game.

So, this game is a big improvement over the previous 3DS entry. While the main story is rather short and some controls could use some polish… This game is a must have for every Pokémon fan!

In any case, I think I’m going to wrap up this article here. while I haven’t said everything about this game I want to say… I have to leave something for the review. Otherwise, the review will sound like a copy paste of this article with some added parts.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I’m quite curious about your opinion of this game. Feel free to leave a comment in the comment section down below. Have a great rest of your day and until the next time! Game on~!