Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Oh, Peggle. I remember when you were just an innocent wee lad, our precious little boy, wouldn’t say boo to a goose. Now you’re out there in the big wide world, rubbing shoulders with the elite with nary a backwards glance. Just don’t forget that you’re still, you’re still Peggle from the block.

Yes, we’ve had Official Orange Box Peggle, Disappointingly Similar Sequel Peggle and Played Within World of Warcraft Peggle. Now we get, simply, World of Warcraft Peggle – 10 free, standalone bonus Peggle levels.
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One massively compulsive game playable within another massively compulsive game? Why, that’s like mixing Pringles with heroin. Yes, an official (from Popcap’s end, at least) Peggle plugin has been released for World of Warcraft. Which is a) terrifying b) exciting and c) supports the viewpoint that MMOs are not merely a genre anymore – they’re a platform all of their own these days.
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While we’re all deep in the “Man, remember that 2008!” demi-ironic naval-gazing, let’s take it further. Remember 2007? Ah, those were amazing days. Remember Peggle Extreme, the Orange-Box-included bonus mini-Peggle game? That headcrab on the unicorns head was funny and similar and… oh, no, can’t stretch this out. Peggle Extreme is now free to anyone with a Steam account. If you haven’t played it yet for some reason, get it from here.

When the_B told me about this, I told him that I knew about it already. But I didn’t! What I was thinking about was the free new level pack for Peggle Nights. So thanks, The_B.

The sequel (of sorts) to our favourite ball-based game of last year has been around for a few weeks now, but grumpy, sensible types – myself included – had refused to buy it direct from Popcap, preferring to wait until it showed up in Steam for that vital install-anywhere thingy, and the hope of a lower price. And now it has, which is good news for Peggle fans, but bad news for me as I’m supposed to be working this evening, but instead I’m playing bloody Peggle.
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Quick survey: has anyone heard of a game called Peggle?

Peggle Nights is out! Woo!

Nothing much more needs to be said. It’s £15 from Popcap, and there’s a demo on the site. New Peggle! (Clearly it’s not more Bookworm Adventures, but there’s still cause for celebration).

We’ll be playing the full version and will discuss it in childishly excited tones soon enough. Big thanks to Chris for pointing this out.

The real purpose of press releases is to issue outrageous statements to as many journalists as possible in the hope they’ll namecheck you when they inevitably repeat it. And hey, it works. Popcap send me a release saying stuff like “Bejeweled 2 and Peggle were shown to reduce anger by 65% and 63% respectively” – of course I’m going to post that.

It’s all part of a study (involving 132 subjects) by East Carolina University as to the positive effects of playing casual games. Test subjects were given a raft of Popcap games to play, so, quite understandably, Popcap is now giving props to itself.

This is, however, actualish science, not spurious “our tealady only smiles when playing Chuzzle” stuff.
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I don’t need to do the maths to know that the game that’s been mentioned more times than any other on Rock, Paper, Shotgun is Peggle. While the gleeful pachinko riff might be our obsession, for casual gaming luminaries PopCap, it’s just one more horse [unicorn, surely - Ungulate Ed] in an already unbelievably successful stable. Riding a wave of cult credibility in the wake of Peggle’s strong association with The Orange Box, clearly this developer/publisher was someone we should chat to.

Below, PopCap co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Jason Kapalka offers a few insights into this quiet gaming giant – including their relationship with Valve Software, their approach to humour, the future of casual gaming, what to expect from upcoming sequel Peggle Nights and how they’re not, in fact, slathering, extreme-right warmongers.
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“Write about Peggle Nights,” the Mighty Sentient RPS Computer told me. “But there’s no information about it whatsoever,” I meekly protested. There was a brief whirring. “WRITE ABOUT IT OR I WILL RE-APPLY THE NODES.”

Peggle Nights, eh? How exciting is that?! It’s Peggle, but at night!

Oh please help.

All that’s known is the name, thanks to a mention in the Christmas ish of PC Gamer US. Described as being… Hey, wait a second! I never noticed that insult from Kieron before. Man! Yeah well Kieron, you… you smell of wee wee. And your mum cuts your hair. YOUR PUBIC HAIR.

Simon GameSetWatch speculated that the name might infer a similarity to that greatest of television spin-offs, Baywatch Nights. But that’s only one of many possibilities…

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The running joke was crawling towards the finishing line. It knew it could make it. Somehow, it had to make it. It inched up to the RPS-approved Fairtrade Advent Calendar, and tore open the door to reveal…

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I’m having a bit of a moment. Portable gaming has just been sorted, made a done deal. There is no need for anything else.

Peggle has been released for iPod. Peggle! PEGGLE!
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