By John Walker on September 27th, 2007 at 12:21 pm.
Oh, praise the Lord of Gaming – someone, finally, agrees with me about Peggle.
Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, developer of the wonderful Trilby adventure games, and now Mr Famous for his ludicrously good Zero Punctuation Flash reviews on The Escapist, entirely concurs with me that a) Peggle is fun and distracting, but not incredible, and b) Bookworm Adventures is better! Mr Yahtzee – marry me. Here it is:
This is made all the more vindicating having just got back from a Peggle-obsessed Valve, where the game is still the number two played Steam game on the in-house Steam Community. I tried to promote Bookworm as best I could, but… well, wait for the interviews.
(I should add, I’m not affiliating myself with Yahtzee’s comments on PopCap, as I’ve not given the subject enough thought.)
So that’s two you, then. There are toilet queues with more people than your anti-Peggle movement.
report
Bookworm Adventures is great fun, until you’ve finished it. Most of the goodness comes from its charm and sense of humour, but once you’ve seen everything, you’ve seen everything. After saving the Great Library, you’re only left with either re-running the entire adventure from scratch, or playing some dull minigames.
The original Bookworm hasn’t left my PC since release. And Peggle is Love, with a side order of YOU’RE WRONG. But after finishing Bookworm Adventures (and really enjoying it), I was done.
report
I’ve played BA through many times, and for a number of reasons. Firstly, the game isn’t about seeing the next monster, but able to technique of finding the longest words possible in the grid. That continues to be a reason to play over and again. But then beyond that, the characters you meet have multiple lines to deliver, of which you’ll only hear one. So each play through gives different funny lines to enjoy, as you concentrate on the game itself.
report
“I’ve played BA through many times, and for a number of reasons. ”
Your a gud speler?
KG
report
Heathen! Heretic! Burn him!
Just let me find my Flamethrower. I know I put it down around here somewhere…
report
I can’t say I’m with John (he’s clearly one of History’s greatest monsters), but I’m feeling pretty indifferent toward Peggle these days.
report
I’ve not played Peggle proper, only the XT3M3!!!!1 edition (sorry, I just have something against that particular appellation) but judging by what those 10 levels, Peggle has nothing to keep me interested for long. Maybe I’m just a little thick but I didn’t quite get it and, surprisingly, didn’t feel like I’d achieved anything at the end of each level. Yup, mostly down to luck and trial and error.
report
“Firstly, the game isn’t about seeing the next monster, but able to technique of finding the longest words possible in the grid.”
I find that much more fun in regular Bookworm, myself. More letters, more freedom. And simply dealing with the burning blocks just feels better to me than the armoured fiends late in in BA. Without the monsters, the focus becomes much more on the words and the finding of same.
Of course, that’s just how I play it.
report
“Yup, mostly down to luck and trial and error.”
That’s how it feels at the start. By the time you hit the Challenges (and especially things like ‘score a million points’), skill largely takes over. There’s luck too, but there’s a surprising amount to it. Peggle EXTREME also doesn’t have any of the cool superpowers.
report
Hilarious. Really, truly, proper funny, not just ‘funny for a games/review article’ funny.
But, with one huge gaping hole in it. How can he not realise that it is like PACHINKO!, rather than pinball. its PACHINKO! Of course, I am only really aware of PACHINKO! because of a marvelous, insane Korean film in which at one point a character spent time running round a japanese market with a PACHINKO! machine on his back shouting PACHINKO! (just like that) and ended with the main protagonist, having beaten all the top martial artists in Japan, punching a charging bull in the head, thats PUNCHING A CHARGING BULL IN THE HEAD, which obviously makes it the best film ever and he may not have seen that, but still.
Oh, and obviously he’s wrong about Peggle. And I can’t stand BA purely because you are NOT ALLOWED TO TYPE your words, as if we are console playing proles. I wanted to like it. I too like Scrabble, mainly because I am nigh unbeatable by nearly everyone I know, so really I did, but why (oh why, oh why) can’t you type. your. damn. answers? Tschk.
report
Warning: I got no sleep last night. You might have been able to tell that from the last post. I forgot to mention, did anyone else spot the nice little dig against NGJ right at the start?
report
Pete: Re: Pachinko. Problem with Zero Punctuation is that he’s very funny, but tends to hide some cheerily regressive opinions and a lack of knowledge behind the flash. BLESS.
And, yes, I did notice the NGJ gag.
KG
report
Of course you did. You’re a narcissistic prick!
report
Oh yeah: PEGGLE!
KG
report
Might I add that Bookworm Adventures has one of the finest endings in gaming?
report
I’m making myself comfortable on this fence here. The inverted fence that is, as I love both Peggle and Bookworm. It’s sharp and pointy, and I think there’s anti vandal paint on my backside…
report
That’s not a tangent! It’s a triangle!
/coat
PS. Every day of peggle I play, I hate it more. Yet still I play?
report
“Might I add that Bookworm Adventures has one of the finest endings in gaming?”
I think it’s right up there with my other all-time favourite, the ending of Creatures 2 for the C64.
report