Peglin Xbox Series X Review 7.5/10 "Can Peglin best Peggle as the king of the ball game?" 🏐 @rednexusgames @BlitWorks #GameDev #IndieGame

The Peggle series of games has been a hit in our household for almost a decade, heck – it even sucked in my non-gamer mum for a few months at one point! Much like word-based RPGs, the pachinko genre is one that always gets my britches twitchin’, and I can’t seem to turn down the chance to play and talk about them.

Peglin begins with your initial character – a little goblin (possible the titular ‘Peglin’, thinking about it) – taking a rogue-like path through various stages. It’s all about how the balls fall, you’ll find treasure, upgrades, stores, random encounters, and of course – enemies to thwart. 

The aim of the game here is to drop the ball, and cause as much damage as you can, with the various power-ups and effects coming into play dependent on what balls you hit during your round, this is then translated into the power of your attack as you plough away at the groups of enemies and bosses. It’s immensely satisfying to set of a sequence of bombs and criticals that rinse the screen of enemies!

The music is mellow, well-implemented, and has an addictive, looping quality that games like this need due to the repetition and play time required to see them through. It also feels like there is quite a wide selection of tracks on offer, and the cool backbeats blend perfectly with the visual style of the game - chunky pixels - and smooth gameplay.

As you make your way though each run, you’ll unlock permanent upgrades as well as more temporary items, some of these can be combined with relics to further up their usefulness. When you meet your demise – and you will – you’ll be headed back to the start, hopefully this time around inching ever closer to that main goal. 

One of the big points in a game such as this is the inevitable random factor. I found myself in situations whereby I was struggling to hammer away at enemies as they marched across the screen towards my hapless little goblin in all their turn-based glory, and in other moments I was nailing the bosses in a couple of rounds after some lucky bounces and ball placements. 

I really like that sense of things being a little out of the players’ hands with pachinko-style games, but I can understand that it’s that very sense of a lack of agency that can be a bugbear for other players, so be advised!

An inherently fun and addictive little game, I do wish that the playing area was a little bigger, as it can feel a little squashed, especially when there’s balls galore, I couldn’t shake the feeling feel that a slightly larger playing area would lead to more tactical play being possible

SUMMARY

A simple premise that is easy enough to grasp, but does leave the more in-depth gameplay elements and customisations in a bit of a grey area until you get to grips with them, Peglin is a solid entry in the genre with old-school vibes and a cool, breezy soundtrack. I think this will be installed on my Xbox for quite a while!

7.5/10

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