Peggle
Posted by Dan on August 18, 2008
Genre : Video Game
Publisher: Popcap Games
Players: 1-2
Retail Price: $20 through Popcap, $10 through Steam
Availability: Popcap store, Steam (PC, Mac, iPod)
I wasn’t expecting anything big from Peggle. It looked like a fun game, certainly, but nothing Earth-shatteringly amazing. I sat down to play it and checked the time. ‘It’s 10 right now,’ I said to myself. I figured that playing until 11 and then heading to bed sounded look a good plan.
Suddenly it was midnight. ‘Ok, I can get by this stage, then go to sleep.’ But then I got shoved into the next stage automatically, and I figured hey, what’s a few more shots? Then I unlocked a new character, and I had to see what their power was.
Let’s get this out of the way right now: Peggle is the closest thing my laptop has to crack. It should be a controlled substance. Only play when you have a friend or relative who can talk you down and explain that no, beating that last damn rabbit stage is not the most important thing in your life right now, and yes, they understand that you only had one peg left to hit.
The general concept of Peggle is that you shoot a ball at multicolored pegs and bricks. The ball bounces around, and eventually falls off of the screen. There’s a bucket that is sliding back and forth at the bottom, and getting the ball in there gives you an extra. The pegs that you hit light up and disappear after each shot, but (unless your ball is stuck) stick around until then, meaning they can provide bounces multiple times. The goal of each level is to clear the orange pegs (or bricks). Purple pegs give you a score multiplier (get enough points in a turn and you also get a free ball), green pegs activate your character’s power and blue pegs are filler (though their point value increases as you hit orange pegs, so saving as many until the end is advised). Understanding that saying ‘tell the difference between this orange brick and this blue brick’ may not be easy for some people, they’ve included a Colorblind Mode that puts a plus sign on the purples and a triangle on the greens.
You’d think that letting gravity do its work on pegs would get boring after a while, but Peggle does a great job of changing things up. Sometimes there are pegs and bricks. Then, the pegs will move. Then there will be black holes that change gravity and warp the ball other places. The biggest reason to keep coming back, though, is that there are 10 different ‘teachers’ that you can play as, each with a different skill. I expected there to be one or two clear ‘better’ skills, but then found myself considering the strengths and weaknesses of each on the last five Adventure stages, where you can choose your character. Even Bjorn the unicorn, with the ’see where your ball will bounce’ skill that I dismissed out of hand at the start, comes into play later: I’m fairly convinced it’s impossible to beat one of the final stages without it.
That’s right, a unicorn. Peggle has a very distinctive style: it looks like something out of South Park’s Imaginationland, with incredibly over-the-top cute cartoony characters and graphics. Play as a unicorn! Or a skateboarding hamster*! Or a rabbit in a tuxedo, with a ‘magic hat’ skill! Then, when you clear all of the orange pegs a rainbow covers the screen, a message that says ‘EXTREME FEVER’ pops up and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy plays. Then fireworks go off.
It may be saccharine, but I take it as all in good fun. It’s lighthearted and colorful in a way that makes you laugh instead of feel nauseous; though, I suppose I must admit I’m the type of person to look at lolcats and say ‘Aww, kitty’s so cute!’ They have a style, and they stick to it with such devotion that it brings a smile to my face to play as Lord Cinderbottom, the dragon.
I started out by saying that Peggle was addictive, and oh is it ever. What’s worse, it’s not an accident. They knew what they were doing. Years from now, when Peggle advertisements are banned from TV and commercials are aired featuring young adults citing Peggle-related health statistics, people will look back at internal Popcap messages and know that it could have been stopped.
Most of Peggle is luck, or at least it’s sufficiently impossible to predict where the ball will go after a bounce or two that it may as well be (which is where the owl’s ‘zen shot’ comes into play: it optimizes your angle for you). The genius in it is that there’s just enough skill involved that when you get an lucky bounce or high combo you feel awesome about yourself. I admit to having thrust my arms in the air in celebration after passing a particularly challenging level or two.
There is a lot of meat to this game. In addition to the 55 Adventure levels, there are 77 Challenge boards that range from ‘Beat this level with 35 orange pegs to clear instead of 25′ to ‘Beat this level with one ball’ and ‘Clear every peg, including the blues.’ Then there’s Duel mode, which allows you to play against a computer or second player on any of the Adventure levels. You each choose a character, and play with the same pegs, which adds another layer of strategy: you may not want the green peg right now, but if you don’t take it then you risk clearing a straight shot for it for your opponent (which, believe me, I’ve managed to do a lot). Also, there’s a penalty for not hitting any orange pegs in a shot that takes away 25% of your score, which is doubly mean considering orange pegs are the best way to get points as it is. The Duel mode changes enough about the game to make it more than ‘two of us playing at the same time’ while retaining everything that Peggle is, and my only real complaint with it is that Dave was beating me way too much. They should fix that.
The only thing that was stopping me from giving Peggle five stars — which to me says ‘Everyone should play this game’ — was the price. That’s not to say it’s not worth $20: it is, and then some. The Adventure mode alone is worth the price of admission, and that’s ignoring the obsessive desire to play a level until you get it right that’s introduced in the Challenges. I could just imagine the price being too much for some people, who would play it for a bit and then give up. However, in the course of doing research for the review (I have a BA in History and a Masters in Library Science, what do you expect?) I found that the Steam price is currently half off. The original price has a line through it, like during their weekend sales, so I’m not sure if it’s a permanent change or not. That was all the incentive I needed, though: at $10, there is no reason for you to not own this game. The only excuse you could possibly have would be that you have an addictive personality and fear winding up on the streets because you lost your wife, job and house due to needing to become the Extreme Grandmaster (clearing every peg from every level in Adventure mode).
It’s also worth noting that Peggle is available for the iPod for $5. I don’t feel comfortable including that in this review, as the controls will be different (though intuitive, as you can aim with the scroll wheel). They may work, or they may not, and as such it’s a completely different review.
Peggle has won all kinds of awards, and it’s not hard to see why: it’s an entertaining game that can be played for as little or long in a sitting as you would like. If you’d prefer to play it outside of Windows, Popcap still has you covered, as it’s available in more formats than your average Madden release: in addition to the Mac (as this is being typed in Leopard, that’s nice) and iPod versions currently available there’s also Peggle Extreme (available only as part of the Orange Box on Steam), and within the next two months you’ll also be able to play it via the Xbox Live Arcade and in a mobile version, with a DS port by Q Entertainment (the Lumines folks) coming out by the end of the year. Popcap was unavailable to comment on the rumor that an Atari 2600 version is also in the works.
A sequel, Peggle Nights, is scheduled to be released for the PC in about a month. Until then, do yourself a favor and at least play the demo of the original. There’s even a free online version (Windows only, apparently) with 20 extra levels. Just, you know, enjoy responsibly and don’t operate heavy machinery while under the influence of Extreme Fever.
* Dave and I disagree on the species of Jimmy Lightning: he insist he’s a gopher. As it turns out, we were both wrong and he’s a chipmunk.
Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner
Posted by Dave on August 17, 2008
Genre : Video Game Publisher: Telltale Games Players: 1 Retail Price: $9, or $35 as part of Strong Bad Season One on PC, 1000 points on Nintendo Wii Availability: PC (Telltale Store, WiiWare)
Anyone who hasn’t heard of Homestar Runner obviously hasn’t had access to the internet for the last eight years. Since the site launched in 2000 it has been one of the premiere places to go for quality web cartoons. So the big question is, how would this internet flash cartoon translate into the world of video games.
That question gets answered very quickly as you find that playing the game is like being part of one larger interactive Homestar cartoon. The characters translate perfectly into 3D and the animation looks exactly as you would expect it to if you took the Homestar characters out of their their 2D world. The voice work is also exactly the same as Matt Chapman did all the character voices in this much like he does in the flash videos.
The story of the game focuses on one of the sites characters, Strong Bad. If you’re a fan of the site, you obviously know about the Strong Bad Emails section. Every week Strong Bad checks his email and responds to questions from people in usually hilarious ways. For this episode Strong Bad receives an email from someone who asks him why he’s never beaten up Homestar if he hates him so much. It then becomes your job to ruin Homestars life if typical Strong Bad fashion.
If you’ve played any of the Sam and Max games, the controls will seem completely familiar as it is your standard point and click adventure. One of the biggest differences between this game and the Sam and Max series is with the dialog trees. In the Homestar game your dialog comes in the form of images over the characters head. If you see a picture of the Snakeboxer game, then the course of dialog will relate to your quest to find the missing pages of your Snakeboxer Five manual. You will quickly understand the way the game plays, and although the basic concepts of the game are easy to grasp, you will definitely find your share of difficulty as the game progresses
The games main challenge lies in trying to figure out the puzzles they throw at you. Early on in the game you find out that Homestar is trying to win the Tri Annual Race to the End of the Race, and instead of beating him up you decide to enter the race so you can beat him. The only thing is, you are too late to enter so you have to figure out a way to get into the race. The most challenging part of this game in my opinion was not always knowing what I needed to do next. Its hard to cite specific examples without giving away the story, but you will definitely notice them while you are playing. This is one of the few problems I had with the game and its not the biggest gripe one could have.
This is the first Tell Tale game to appear on Nintendo’s WiiWare service and its clear to see why they made the jump to this platform. I personally played the PC version of the game, but since the main controls of the game focus on you clicking on part of the screen and your character interacting with where you clicked, its easy to see why it makes sense on the Wii. There are only two noticeable differences between the PC and WiiWare versions of the game. The first is that on the Wii you are able to send emails and pictures to your friends from Strong Bad’s Lappy. The other is when you are playing the Snakeboxer minigame, you play with the Wii remote turned sideway
This game clearly has a specific target audience in people that are fans of the Homestar brand. I’ll admit that I was hugely into the Homestar craze about four years ago, but I dropped off and hadn’t really followed the site in the last few years. This game has resurrected my love of the site and I can’t wait to play the next installment of the series. I have found myself returning to the site in anticipation of new cartoons, as well as subscribing to the podcast feed so I can watch Strong Bad Emails on my ipod. If you’ve ever been a fan of the cartoon, or point and click adventures I would recommend you give this game a shot. Hopefully not knowing about Homestar Runner does not dissuade you from picking it up. There is a demo up on the Tell Tale site that gives you an idea of what the game has to offer so if nothing else give it a try.
Sam and Max Episode 101: Culture Shock
Posted by Dan on August 16, 2008
Genre : Video Game
Publisher: Telltale Games
Players: 1
Retail Price: $9, or $30 as part of Sam and Max Season One
Availability: PC (Telltale Store, Gametap)
Sam and Max are hardly new to the public consciousness. They’ve been around in comic book form for over 20 years, and their first foray into the point-and-click adventure game genre was in 1993. Telltale Games’ adaptations, the current incarnation of the dog and ‘hyperkinetic rabbity thing’ freelance police duo, started in October of 2006 and has spawned eleven episodic games (shorter, cheaper, frequently released games) over two ’seasons,’ with a third announced for 2009.
So, I’ll admit it: until now I’ve somehow managed to entirely avoid Sam and Max (with the exception of their Easter egg cameo in Star Wars Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight). I recently set out to rectify that, and will be playing through — and reviewing — all six episodes of season one and five of season two, well in time for season three next year. I have to imagine that I’m not the only one suffering from Sam and Max deprivation, which is a shame: these games are fun.
The basic mechanical concept of point and click adventure games is that the character that you control (which, at least in Episode 101, is always Sam, though you do get to speak as Max) stands still, unless you click somewhere for him to walk. Clicking on items will allow you to pick up or interact with them, and manipulating the environment in this way allows you to solve the puzzles that are the meat of the game.
Well, the puzzles are half the reason to play. The other incentive is the dialog, because this game has excellent writing. Sam is the comedic foil of the team, relatively speaking, though he does have great exclamations of surprise. Max an the over-the-top sociopath, and even though the dialog structure of ‘Sam says something dry, Max says something violent and crazy’ should have gotten stale by the end of the game, I still found myself laughing out loud all the way through. My favorite character, though, has to be Bosco — proprietor of the store Bosco’s Inconvenience — as I’m a sucker for conspiracy theorist paranoia. I spent entirely too much time clicking ‘Do you have any…’ in his store instead of trying to actually, y’know, solve the case.
As for the case itself, without giving away too much, it involves the Eye-Bo Ocular Fitness System, former child stars and a violent reaction to dentistry (or hairdressers). Yeah. Explaining to someone what you’re trying to do in the game at any given point will generally garner you odd looks, but it’s what makes Culture Shock great: an incredibly convoluted, outrageous and hilarious plot.
Before I began playing, I considered myself fairly inept at solving the kinds of puzzles found in adventure games. Luckily, the game does a good job of easing you into the frame of mind required to be able to complete it. That, or I’m still an idiot and the puzzles were really easy. I think I’ll stick with the former. (author’s note: delete previous two sentences). Though some do tend to be on the easy side — find a coat hanger when the previous puzzle you solved required you to click on one — others are challenging enough that I felt satisfied with myself for having figured them out.
The only fault I can find with Culture Shock is that it’s a little on the short side, even for an episodic game. I think my time clocked in at somewhere around 90 minutes, and I was expecting at least two hours or so (especially considering I was new to the genre). That being said, ’short’ does not mean ’short changed.’ This is the first game in the series, and it does a great job of introducing the concepts, settings and characters that will be used in the future. Even at 90 minutes I definitely feel as though I got much more than $9 worth of enjoyment, and that was before I found that Telltale has a list of things you probably missed while playing (spoiler alert). Going down the long line of ‘Did you try?’s I found myself shaking my head and mumbling ‘no’ over and over again. This isn’t some skeletal, linear flash game: there are a lot of ways to go through Culture Shock, and unless you play it multiple times you’re not going to see everything.
If you’re like me and have managed to miss out on Sam and Max until now, think of today as the first day of the rest of your life and rectify that problem. But please, if you buy it, buy the season.
Trackmania United Forever half off on steam this weekend
Posted by Dave on August 15, 2008
Just as a heads up to any Trackmania fans out there, steam’s weekend deal is Trackmania United Forever for $19.99. So if you had a blast with Trackmania Nations Forever, you definitely can’t argue with this awesome price.
A quick note on Sam and Max
Posted by Dan on August 15, 2008
In the coming weeks, Gaming Shenanigans is going to be inundated with reviews of games in Telltale’s Sam and Max series. All eleven games in the two series will be reviewed, sequentially, starting with Episode 101: Culture Shock, which should go up late tonight or early tomorrow.
As we’ve said on The Riot recently, we’re big fans of Telltale’s business strategy. You can either buy an episode for $9 or the entire season for $30-$35, which also (for the price of shipping) gets you the disc with bonus features. You play them immediately, but have the physical media backup as well.
So, before I start on the slew of reviews for the series, I have to get something out of the way:
If you want to play Sam and Max, buy the season.
It will be cheaper for you in the long run (you save $2 an episode on season two) and I can almost guarantee that, having played one, you’ll want to play the rest. You also get a ton of bonus content, but — what I would say is most important now, when publishers are still experimenting with digital distribution — you also are voting with your dollar and telling them ‘I think this is a good idea.’
Don’t believe me? Fine. Buy an episode and then upgrade. It’s the exact same price as having bought the season to begin with. Too cheap to spend $9, but not satisfied with a demo? Fine, how about downloading the complete Episode 104: Abe Lincoln Must Die, entirely for free.
I don’t want to seem too biased. I will be staying critical throughout all my reviews, and I can guarantee that not every episode will be getting a perfect score (who knows, maybe none of them will!). That being said, I am honestly very impressed with the games that Telltale makes and the way in which they market them. It’s understandable if these games aren’t your cup of tea; until I started on Culture Shock, I thought the same thing. However, if you’re like me and have lived under a rock for the almost two years since season one started, and are going to buy the games anyway, I urge you: let them know that you like their business model.
Unlock a new plane in 1942: Joint Strike
Posted by Dan on August 14, 2008
Capcom just announced that players of the XBLA/PSN game 1942: Joint Strike have been missing out on a plane in their arsenal: the Super Shinden, with maxed out stats.
Interested? First, you’ll need to beat the game on the Wing King difficulty. Then, when you’re selecting your plane, highlight the Shinden and press Y (for 360 users) or Triangle (for our PS3 readers). You can then play through the game with the Shinden’s black, super-hero brother.
If anyone has a chance to try out the Super Shinden, let us know how it flies in the comments.
A Kingdom for Keflings
Posted by Dan on August 14, 2008
Anyone with a 360 should know about NinjaBee. They’re the warrior insects behind Outpost Kaloki X, Cloning Clyde and Band of Bugs. Sadly, no one associated with Gaming Shenanigans has played Band of Bugs, but Dave and I both had a ton of fun with their first two releases. Hell, not owning a 360 isn’t an excuse as Band of Bugs, Outpost Kaloki and other games are also available for the PC.
Their latest project, scheduled to be released on Xbox Live Arcade later this year, is A Kingdom for Keflings. It seems to be similar to Outpost Kaloki in that you’re trying to construct a place for other people to enjoy; I thought I’d be somewhat less satisfied because you’re no longer in space, but then I found out that you’re playing as a giant and was mollified significantly.
A lot of the details are still under wraps, but the general premise is this: you play as one of four giants who are trying to build a, well, kingdom for Keflings, which are helpful little guys who are more than willing to take orders from you, presumably because you’ll grind their bones and make it into bread if they don’t. Ray, when someone four times bigger asks you to shear that sheep, you say yes.
There seems to be a significant amount of customization to be done, as not only do you choose your giant (each of which has specific strengths and weaknesses) but also paint buildings, build statues (to yourself, I’d hope) and arrange the town as you see fit. If, in your esteemed giant-y wisdom, you ever decide that you now see fit differently, you can also pick up what you’ve built and move it somewhere else.
There’s also going to be four player cooperative play over Live (and, hopefully, locally as well; we’ve asked NinjaBee for clarification), which should combine the best elements of Animal Crossing and Halo 3’s Forge mode in that 30 minutes of my work will be ruined when one of my jerk friends comes in and lays waste to my masterpiece.
We should have more information for you soon, but until then be content to know that you’ll be able to yell ‘Fe fi fo fum’ later this fall.
Update: Unfortunately, there will be no local co-op in A Kingdom for Keflings. I assumed this was the case, as eventually you’ll have quite a big plot of land, and it’d have been quite a design challenge to allow for free movement while keeping two to four people on the screen. As much as I like playing with people in the same room, I’d much prefer that NinjaBee recognize when something will be too much effort for too little reward and focus their energy on putting out a stronger single player/online experience.
Castle Crashers Price Unveiled
Posted by Dave on August 14, 2008
So everyone can rest easy as the official price for Castle Crashers was announced today on the Behemoth development blog. So the game is going to be releasing on August 27th for 1200 Microsoft points ($15), not the 1800 that was originally rumored.
I was a little uneasy about the prospect of spending $22.50 on an Xbox Live Arcade title so I’m glad the price point was finally announced. Be sure to check it out when it releases in a couple of weeks and we’ll keep you posted if we hear anything else.
Another Grimm Adventure
Posted by Dave on August 14, 2008
Another Grimm game came out today on the Gametap service and is available for free until tomorrow. The story is The Fisherman and His Wife and it details another classic fairy tale about a fisherman who catches a magic fish that offers the fisherman a wish to be granted in exchange for his freedom. The fisherman’s wife gets too greedy though and its up to Grimm to set this story straight.
Leaderboard times are coming in around ten to twenty minutes so its another quick game but if you have enjoyed the previous two games I’m sure you will enjoy this one. You can also download the game if you prefer not to use the Gametap service for $3.99 on the Gametap site. Also as a reminder you can still play and download the first episode for free if you happen to miss out on the free chance for the current episode. I would definitely recommend people at least check these games out and let us know what you think.
Bionic Commando Rearmed Out Today
Posted by Dave on August 14, 2008
Bionic Commando is popping up on consoles and PC today so go pick it up and show your love for the update to this classic NES title. I used to love this game when I was younger and I’m really looking forward to giving it a shot once I get my hands on it. The game has updated graphics and multiple new features not included with the original game such as two player co-op, four person local multiplayer, and 50 challenge rooms where you truly test you Bionic Commando skills. The game is going to be $10 on Xbox 360 and PS3 and $15 on PC. So go pick it up for your system of choice and let us know what you think, I can’t see how you can possibly be disappointed.
