Peggle HD (iPad) Review

After so many months playing through the iPhone edition of the game, iPad users FINALLY have their own version of Peggle, now in HD format. Yeah, yeah, it took damn long enough, right? Better that PopCap Games take their time on it and make it perfect, rather than rush it to the market in a lackluster format. After all, it’s PEGGLE. You don’t want to screw it up.

Rest assured, PopCap doesn’t. What we have here is one of the most addictive strategy games available on the App Store today, and for a budgetable price (at the moment) of $2.99.

You know the drill, right? Your job is to clear orange pegs away from a playfield by dropping a marble onto them. It bounces off of objects and other pegs, particularly blue ones. You’ll also need to try and build up a high score by hitting combos, performing long skill shots, hitting score multipliers (pink pegs), and using power-ups, each aligned with a specialty character, such as an animal or an alien. Each one is different, and you can select between them once you beat the game.

Peggle HD still plays as fantastic as ever. You can either aim on the playfield with touch screen controls, or use a scrolling wheel on the side for precision. Both work very well, and will keep you dropping marbles well into the night. You can also unlock Achievements in Game Center to show off to your friends, though there’s no direct online competition. Oh, well.

Now, being dubbed HD, you expect Peggle to look PHENOMENAL on the iPad, right? Well, good news – it does. The play fields are definitely up to par – in fact, past it – with great peg alignments, interesting object placements (damn fish!), and a cool zoom-in feature, if you want to see where a shot goes. Also, it’s still nice to have Extreme Fever kick in (with a little “Valkyries” in the background) kick in once you get that last peg. The music remains the same, but is pleasant background noise as you get through each stage.

No, nothing’s really changed, but if it ain’t broke, why fix it? PopCap Games has been making unbeatable social games for years, and Peggle maintains the status quo by being so simple, yet so delightful. The HD version is one of the best versions to date, and one that won’t set you that far back in your wallet. Drop some cash, then drop some balls.