The unrivaled ruler of casual games, Peggle, has made its way to the iPad. The iPhone version launched over two years ago, and the transition to the bigger screen will no doubt see just as much success. Peggle HD has full support for Game Center with 29 achievements, and the Peggle Nights expansion will be available through in-app purchase. All of the classic characters are there, including my personal favourite, Lord Cinderbottom the dragon.
If, for whatever reason, you’ve never played it, Peggle is a simple pachinko-style game where you shoot a ball into a bunch of pegs, and try to take out the orange ones. The ball bounces around a bunch, so anything after the second bounce is basically a crap-shoot, but there’s lots of pretty colours, explosions, and points. You pick a character to play as, which enables you to execute some special manoevers – in Cinderbottom’s case, the shot after nailing a green peg will be a giant flaming fireball, which steamrolls over any and all pegs in its path. There are a bunch of challenges in there too, which will no doubt keep you occupied once you’ve blasted through the core single-player game.
PopCap, the maker of Peggle and other hugely popular casual games like Plants vs. Zombies, was recently acquired by EA. That’s a pretty big deal, since EA is traditionally big on console and PC games, but it can’t be argued that smartphones are gradually becoming the future of gaming, which means the big-name publishers have to start considering bite-size casual titles.
As a launch special, Peggle HD will be available for $2.99 – 40% off the usual price, while Peggle Nights will be half off for a limited time too. Head on over to iTunes to pick up Peggle while the price is still good.
[via PR Newswire]