Having never dipped my toes into Peggle, the gameplay never quite pulled me in. The idea of just watching without any real involvement didn’t appeal to me. But when Peglin unexpectedly dropped for the Nintendo Switch after a Nintendo Direct, it piqued my interest. I wondered if it might be the idle game experience I’d been seeking. With my growing appreciation for pinball-esque games, Peglin seemed like it might offer that perfect balance. While it didn’t quite convert me into a die-hard pachinko enthusiast, its core gameplay did bring me back repeatedly for a chance to launch balls at foes.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because Peglin follows the well-trodden path of many roguelike indie games. You’re tasked with vanquishing enemies in various areas, steadily enhancing your arsenal and skills before taking on formidable bosses. While it doesn’t break new ground, Peglin clearly lays out its gameplay style from the get-go. Its visual design didn’t particularly grab me—it’s a bit reminiscent of Microsoft Paint with its pixel art—but it serves its purpose. The varied enemy types and diverse locations ensure that your journey through Peglin’s universe doesn’t get stale.
The gameplay is where Peglin can either shine for you or fall flat. Your main action involves launching an orb at a peg-laden board. Each peg struck boosts the ultimate damage dealt to the adversaries perched atop the board. Your influence is limited to choosing the direction to fire your orb. Special pegs reward you with extra coins, multiplied damage, critical hits, or unique attack properties. After each round, you can opt to purchase new orbs, adding them to your rotation, which is shuffled with every skirmish. Alternatively, you might invest coins in upgrading the power of your existing orbs. There are numerous enjoyable combinations and additional items to uncover on your journey, which enhance your orbs’ prowess. Yet, balance is key. For instance, I stumbled upon an item gifting me multiball capabilities, duplicating every fired orb, but restricting me to certain firing directions. It’s this continual give-and-take that makes some battles challenging but gratifying to conquer, especially the bosses. They introduce complications, like sticky lines between pegs that trap your orbs or spawning new enemies.
My relationship with Peglin falls somewhere in the middle. I thoroughly enjoyed the pinball-like thrill of launching orbs and stacking up high damage. However, the game has a predominantly passive vibe. Once the orb is launched, there’s little room for further strategy; selecting the target for your attack is crucial during boss fights or certain enemy waves, but that’s the extent of your control. This lack of engagement is heightened by the absence of comprehensive tutorials detailing the mechanics and extra options. I only learned much later that orbs could be discarded from the lineup to quicken the appearance of other attacks, which might have elemental advantages against particular foes. For a supposedly easy-to-pick-up game, it felt like there was more strategic thinking required than actual gameplay, which posed a bit of a hurdle.
Given that Peglin is a roguelike, there’s a significant element of chance involved, leaving me occasionally stuck in skirmishes I might have otherwise conquered. It’s tough to restore health between encounters, and sometimes strong attacks miss the critical pegs required for maximum damage. Every run sees you starting anew since you can’t carry over permanent upgrades. My furthest progression felt more like a serendipitous star alignment than a reflection of my gaming prowess. This element of chance can make or break the experience for different players, often prompting me to take breaks from the game. Yet, I found myself drawn back to Peglin, captivated by its addictive mechanics of launching orbs at pegs, always eager to see if I could push further.
Peglin isn’t a game for everyone. Its roguelike structure, mixed with the significant luck factor, took a while to grow on me. The unclear mechanics and inability to significantly influence the board at times led to frustration. Yet, beneath these challenges lies an excellent core game that had me returning repeatedly. When you manage to line up the perfect combo of attacks and elemental damage, taking down a boss in just a few shots is incredibly satisfying. Despite the high entry barrier, once you get rolling, it’s hard to stop. Ultimately, Peglin emerges as one of those fantastic background games that players might find themselves returning to time and again. While I can’t predict the future with certainty, I suspect Peglin might just hang around for quite a while.
