When you play video games, sometimes you want a challenge; you want to use your mind and problem-solve. Other times you’re me, and you just want to press a button and destroy things, and that’s when games like Peggle 2 come in handy. This is what you play when you want to lose yourself for hours, but you want the game to do most of the work for you. That’s my kind of procrastination station.
On the surface, Peggle 2 looks like it should be called something like, “My First Video Game.” It has lots of bright colors, rainbows, and sparkles—there’s even a unicorn, for crying out loud. But then you learn that this unicorn is named Bjorn, and he occasionally farts rainbows. And that is when everything changes.
Peggle 2 is a simple game: you aim, you fire your ball, and you watch what happens. It’s set up like a pinball machine: you shoot a ball and it bounces off the pegs and sides on its way down and out. The goal is to hit as many pegs and squares as you can, which gets more difficult as all of the pegs and squares that get hit then disappear before the next turn. Also, some of the pegs are different colors and are therefore more valuable.
As a woman who has been known to waste many, many minutes on Bubble Witch Saga, this kind of game is right up my alley. Even better, there was nothing complicated or fancy, so when I played my kids I actually had a shot at beating them.
Sometimes, momma wants a win. So sue me.
Peggle 2 is great for family play because not only can you play against one another in an option called “local duel,” but you can control other aspects of the game like how many green pegs appear in the level (which give your character a super power), how long you have to make your shot, and how many rounds there are per match. The fact that you can adjust the difficulty of the game to suit your child’s age, skill level, and how much they deserve to be punished on any particular day is a big plus for me.
My kids and I loved Peggle 2 not just for its playability but for the little extras that make it so much fun. For example, there are the characters: I’ve already discussed Bjorn the unicorn, who head bangs to Ode to Joy when he wins. I never did get to see his famous rainbow farts, though. I asked my kids when he was going to do it, and they said, “You can’t predict the farts,” which I felt was both fair and realistic.
Luna is a lovable little zombie girl who can turn her head into a candy corn.
We also enjoyed Luna, the zombie, who can turn her head into a candy corn. She also dreams about dead teddy bears, which I can’t explain but did appreciate. Then there’s Jeffrey the troll, who has two goats hiding in a bush on his back (as you do). The goats think about bananas when you do well, and poor Jeffrey drips snot in and out of his nose when you lose. My favorite character, however, was Gnorman the robot with his giant hat and fierce moustache, while the kids loved Berg the yeti, who turns around and shakes his butt at you when you do well (his butt is pixelated to cover his shame, which was a genius choice by the good people at Popcap Games.)
In short, Peggle 2 is all joy. And lest you think it’s too easy for you, there are different challenges you can try, like doing trick shots or beating a high score. Or you can just relax, dress the yeti up like a baby, and enjoy round after round of sparkly rainbow happiness.
