Have you ran out of levels and challenges on the original Peggle? Then maybe it's time to invest in the Peggle Nights expansion pack. At half the price of the original game, you might be forgiven for thinking that Peggle Nights would have half the content of it's predecessor - but in fact, it's got just as much as the original game, only this time, it costs half the price. Which is a bargin, whichever way you look at it.
If you've never played Peggle before - well, first of all, you've been missing out, and you'd better get buying the original game on the Xbox Live Arcade if you want to play this! Presented with a board full of orange, blue, green and pink pegs, and ten shiny metal balls, it's your job to clear all the orange pegs from the screen, whilst trying to get the highest score possible. Even though you only need to destroy the orange pegs to complete the level, getting a high score is a different matter - destroying the blue pegs gives you points, and the green pegs give you power ups (such as multiple balls, or explosions that 'hit' all the nearby pegs), with the pink pegs netting you a big point bonus. For the more trick-shot minded amongst us, there's also a 'bucket' that makes it's way across the bottom of the screen, and if you manage to bounce, bump, or scrape your way into it, you'll not only net serious point-age, but you'll also be awarded an extra ball, so you get another turn to rack up even more points. Cute, colourful, and more than a little bit addictive, Peggle is both the greatest game ever created, and a nightmare for anyone with even the slightest hint of OCD, as that "one more go" mentality will quickly ingrain itself in your conscious.
Hamsters doing science experiments. Welcome to the crazy world of Peggle.
Taking you on a journey into the dreams of the various 'Peggle Masters' - the teachers at the Peggle Institute you met in the original game's 'Adventure Mode', Peggle Nights is a lot more off the wall than the original game - which is no mean feat, seeing as that game had a talking unicorn. The dreams, which the levels are based around, are as colourful as the Peggle characters themselves, with a hamster who dreams of being a scientist, a dragon who wants to be a fireman (we can see a slight problem there), and an owl that wants to be Elvis making up just a few of the personas you'll come across.
Each of the Peggle characters has their own series of five levels - boards of pegs with different pictures in the background - interspersed with little comments from the characters, telling you what they dream of being, and why, which form a nice back story to the ball bouncing - and once you finish each character's story, you'll be rewarded with a little photograph of their alter-ego in your trophy room. There's also another, secret unlockable character that you get to play as later in the adventure mode, which brings the Peggle Master count up to 11.
Once you've finished the 60 levels of the adventure mode - which should take a fair time in itself (particularly the last five levels, which are just cruel) - there's another 60 to unlock, in what's known as the 'Challenge Mode'. And when it says challenge, it's not joking. These range from the relatively tame clearing every single peg on a level, to getting x points on a specific level, to the downright evil clearing an entire level using only one ball. If the adventure mode took you a fair time to complete, this'll keep you going for the next few years.
Even if Peggle Nights doesn't do much to re-invent the classic Peggle formula, it's still well worth the 400 Mircosoft Points (about £3.33), with plenty to offer for your money. Prepare to wave goodbye to your social life (again), as Peggle just got bigger.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
