Disappointing cash grab – Peggle Blast Review

Peggle was one of my favorite games as a child. The music, the artwork, the characters, all of these factors make it one of my all-time favorites. When I saw Peggle Blast, I knew I had to get it. How bad could it be? Pretty bad, as it turns out. The core gameplay is still Peggle, but a lot of its charm has been stripped. For music, there's only one dull, uninspired track. The creative backgrounds with accompanying peg layouts are also gone. As for the characters, well, several make a return, but their design has been drastically changed. So aesthetically, it's not that great. But this is only the beginning of its not-greatness. This game was not published by Popcap, the original owner of the Peggle IP, but was instead published by EA. (You can see where I'm going with this.) As with any and every EA game, there are ludicrous amounts of microtransactions. This by itself wasn't a surprise, but the way they destroy the structure of Peggle's gameplay is astonishing to the point where I didn't use any of the items because it didn't feel like how Peggle was meant to be played. Peggle is mainly a game of luck, with a small bit of skill. If you time your free ball shots right and use your powers resourcefully, you pass the level. Spending money to get a powerup butchers that part of the game. And finally, there's one huge game-breaking glitch. When you start a level, the pegs gradually spawn in all blue, then once all pegs are in, they change colors accordingly. This means you can hit a peg that was supposed to be orange before it can turn orange and before the game can register the fact that you hit an orange peg, meaning that the level has one less orange peg that is impossible to obtain, making the level impossible. Sure, if you don't fire immediately this shouldn't be a problem, but the fact that the glitch is still there is unexcusable. In conclusion, Peggle Blast is basically EA's vision of Peggle, but clearly their vision is warped. This isn't what Peggle is. Peggle is supposed to be a simple game with relaxing music and visuals. This is not that. This is a mess that butchers the Peggle IP. If you're a Peggle traditionalist like me, this game isn't for you. It's a shame that this is the death that the Peggle IP gets. It's a terrible way for any IP to die, as a microtransaction-riddled, uninspired mobile game with its main mechanics removed, especially since a mobile port of the classic Peggle was removed to make room for this disastrous game. Another innocent series ruined by EA.
Review by thomadash on Peggle Blast.