Peggle 2 is the long-awaited sequel to the beloved original. Does this sequel stand up to the original?
I’m sure most people have played Peggle at some point or another. Probably on multiple platforms too. Which is the first thing that makes Peggle 2’s release… odd…. in this day and age. First on Xbox One and then finally onto PlayStation 4, at least for now. With finally getting a PS4, Peggle 2 just so happened to go on sale around that time so I finally snagged it. Hey, Peggle was a big part of my teenage years, okay! I have no shame in that it was one of the first games I played on my PS4!
The first thing I noticed when I dove into Peggle 2 was that Bjorn had… changed a bit. Apparently he is now this super-high unicorn who likes to head bang. Okay. Got it. Surely the rest of the masters can’t be like this right? Unfortunately… most of them are. A bunch of them seem to be super-high or something in their design. And some of the “kid friendliness” is gone: one of the masters moons you each time you win a level with them (it’s blurred out, but still). 
Fortunately, the masters who don’t seem to be all super-high are the ones with the most useful powers.
Peggle 2 is still your basic Peggle. You hit the pegs. Clear them all, get a super bonus. Clear just the oranges, only 1 bottom bucket is the 100k. Bonuses for how many balls you have left. Same ol’, same ol’. Bjorn is the only returning master without buying any DLC. The new masters will give you things such as an ice field that will bounce pegs around as they’re hit (and tag them), and one that will electric shock the three nearest pegs. Some feel just as useless as some of the ones in Peggle, such as the boulder that will hit a peg and then start rolling down.
The two main masters you will probably be using are Gnorman and Luna. Gnorman has the previously mentioned tag the three closest pegs each time you hit a peg. Luna has a power that turns all blue blocks invisible. The catch here is that you can still hit them, and will get a bonus for how many you hit. Looking at some of the leaderboards, people have managed some insane scores through knowing how to abuse her power.
So now back to the original question… Does Peggle 2 live up to the bar that Peggle set? Yes and no. The addictiveness is still present. The joy of watching that ball bounce around the pegs, hoping you made the perfect shot, is still there. The levels can still absolutely BS you in peg placement. However, the powers feel a lot weaker than they did in the first game. And the design feels like someone really was high, but hey, at least Bjorn head bangs or something.
Is it worth it? On sale, yes. Hopefully we’ll eventually see Peggle 2 come to PC and so forth. Is the DLC worth it? While I can’t really say for certain, when I saw that each character would cost me half of what I had paid for the game I immediately just said “nope, not happening.” It’s hard for me to justify spending $2 each on DLC when I only spent $4 on the game itself. So unless you absolutely-must-have-the-game-now (and have the console for it), wait for it to go on sale… or onto PC. Or both. That could work too.
Peggle 2 Review Score
3/5
Peggle 2 is available now on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
