Peglin Game Analysis – Nintendo World Report

I’ve never really been drawn to Peggle, mostly because I prefer games where I’m not just passively watching the action unfold. But when Peglin made an unexpected debut on Nintendo Switch right after a Nintendo Direct, my curiosity was piqued. I thought perhaps it could find a niche that blended elements of an idle game with my newfound enjoyment of pinball-style mechanics. While Peglin didn’t exactly turn me into a fan of pachinko-inspired games, its core mechanics kept pulling me back for more ball-launching action against various foes.

Let me tell you a bit about Peglin—it’s a roguelike indie game, where your task is to dutifully eliminate all enemies in an area, steadily enhancing your arsenal and abilities until you confront a formidable boss. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it lays out its premise clearly for newcomers. As for the art style, it’s not exactly my cup of tea, with a pixel art aesthetic reminiscent of Microsoft Paint. Nonetheless, it serves its purpose. The variety of enemy types and the diverse locations help keep the adventure through Peglin’s world engaging.

Where Peglin really makes you decide if you love it or leave it is in its gameplay. Here, you launch orbs onto a peg-filled board, with each peg you hit boosting the damage the orb will inflict on enemies. Your main role is choosing the angle to fire your orb. Some pegs might help you earn more coins, multiply your damage, or trigger critical hits and other special effects. After each round, you have the option to purchase new orbs to add to your randomized lineup, or you can invest in upgrading your existing orbs. There are loads of fun combos and additional items to discover that enhance your orbs’ potential. Yet, they remain balanced. For instance, I stumbled upon an item that allowed me to launch multiballs, duplicating every orb shot. However, this added restriction on firing direction. This trade-off creates intriguing challenges, particularly against bosses who can alter the board with sticky traps or summon new adversaries, adding layers to the gameplay.

My experience with Peglin is somewhere down the middle. There’s something undeniably satisfying about launching orbs and racking up high damage, akin to pinball. Yet, the game holds an inherent passivity. Once you’ve fired the orb, your strategic options narrow down to selecting which item to target—crucial in boss fights or against specific enemies—but that’s about it. The sense of active engagement just isn’t quite there. Moreover, the game lacks a comprehensive tutorial to guide you through its nuances and advanced tactics. It took me embarrassingly long to realize I could discard orbs to cycle through my deck quicker, a strategy particularly useful for launching elemental damage against certain foes. With such a steep learning curve, I found myself spending more time planning than playing, which created an unexpected barrier.

As a roguelike, Peglin’s reliance on randomness can sometimes leave you stuck, unable to retry a fight you could potentially win. This could be due to the challenge of recovering health between battles or missing crucial hit pegs for big damage plays. And, when your run ends, there are no permanent upgrades—it’s back to square one. The furthest I got felt more like a twist of fate rather than a testament to my gaming prowess. This nature can be a deal-breaker for some players. Still, despite these frustrations, I found myself coming back to Peglin, entertained by its addictive gameplay loop of shooting orbs and attempting to progress just a bit further each time.

Peglin certainly won’t cater to everyone. Its roguelike framework, coupled with the hefty dose of luck required to reach its conclusion, meant it took time to win me over. The unclear mechanics and limited board interaction occasionally frustrated me as a player. Yet, beneath these issues lies a charming game that drew me back repeatedly. When you nail a combination of attacks and elemental damage, taking down a boss in a few well-placed shots feels incredibly rewarding. Although its initial entry barrier is a tad high for my liking, once I got rolling, it was hard to stop. In the end, Peglin feels like one of those perfect background games, destined to be picked up time and again. While I don’t have a crystal ball, I have a hunch that Peglin will stick around in the gaming world for quite a while.