I’m one of those people who never really got into Peggle. There’s just something about its passive gameplay that didn’t appeal to me—just watching without much interaction isn’t quite my style. But when Peglin made its unexpected debut on the Nintendo Switch after a Nintendo Direct announcement, I felt a curious pull towards it. I wondered if it might captivate me like an idle game, offering a halfway point between passive watching and engaging gameplay. As someone who appreciates pinball-style games, I thought it might strike a balance for me. While it didn’t entirely convert me to a pachinko fan, Peglin’s core mechanics did keep drawing me back to launch orbs at enemies.
I’m sure you’ve heard a similar setup before: Peglin is a roguelike indie game where your task is to defeat all the enemies in an area, gradually upgrading your arsenal and moveset, until you’re ready to tackle a formidable boss. Peglin doesn’t venture into unknown territory and more or less lays its cards out for players right from the get-go. Its visual style, reminiscent of something done in Microsoft Paint, is straightforward but functional. Still, the variety in enemy types and locations brings a sense of novelty to the exploration of Peglin’s world.
The gameplay is where Peglin might capture your interest—or lose it. The primary interaction involves launching an orb onto a board peppered with pegs. Each peg you strike boosts the final damage dealt to the foes positioned above the board. Your influence on the game is limited to choosing where to aim your orb. Some pegs offer additional rewards, like coins, damage multipliers, or critical hit chances, adding layers to your attacks. After each round, there’s an opportunity to purchase new orbs or enhance the ones you have, with every challenge offering a randomized selection. The sheer number of combinations and items available to enhance your orbs is exciting and generally well-balanced. Take, for instance, an item I found that granted a multiball effect—every orb doubled upon firing, but I could only aim in specific directions. This kind of tactical trade-off makes battles especially satisfying, particularly against bosses who can alter your board mid-fight by adding sticky lines that trap your orbs or by summoning more enemies.
My personal journey with Peglin sits somewhere in the middle. I found joy in simply launching orbs and achieving high damage akin to playing pinball. Yet, there’s an inherent passivity in the gameplay. Once an orb is fired, the game’s strategy feels limited; you select which target your attack hits, crucial for tougher enemies, but that’s the extent of your engagement. This lack of involvement is compounded by insufficient tutorials that leave many game mechanics a mystery. It was later than expected in my playtime when I realized you could discard unwanted orbs to access certain attacks faster—key for dealing with specific enemy weaknesses. For a game meant to be picked up and played, I found myself planning more than actually playing, which was an unexpected hurdle.
Being a roguelike, Peglin involves a hefty dose of randomness that can lead to frustrating scenarios. I frequently found myself faltering in battles I felt I should have won, either due to difficulties in recover health between encounters or because my well-planned attacks didn’t land critical hits. You can’t carry over improvements between runs, which means starting fresh each time. The furthest I progressed felt more like a lucky strike than a testament to my skill. For some players, this randomness can be a deal-breaker and led to me stepping back from the game for stretches. Still, the simple, addictive loop of launching orbs at pegs continuously drew me back, tempting me with the potential to go further with each attempt.
Peglin clearly isn’t for everyone. Its reliance on roguelike mechanics intertwined with a fair bit of luck requires patience, and it took me some time to warm up to it. The game’s sometimes opaque mechanics and the limits on player influence on the board were sources of frustration. However, the core gameplay loop intrigued me enough to return repeatedly. Finding that perfect combo of attacks and leveraging elemental damage can make boss battles exhilaratingly swift. Though the entry barrier is slightly high for my liking, once I got into the groove, it was hard to put it down. Ultimately, Peglin feels like an excellent game to dip in and out of, one that I could envision players returning to for another round of orb-launching fun. I can’t predict the future, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Peglin becomes a staple in gaming libraries for years to come.
