You may have been a bit mystified by Valve's announcement that a Half-Life-themed version of Peggle was one of their incentives to pre-order The Orange Box. Despite the fact that Peggle has been around for a while now, and is absurdly popular, it's quite possible that you've yet to cross paths with it, writing it off as just another casual puzzle game.
Given the recent upsurge in the popularity of such games, it would be an understandable reaction, but one ultimately to your detriment, because Peggle really is that damn good. Don't just take my word for it, though. Here are five other reasons you should be playing Peggle:
1. Anyone can be good at it—Peggle is sort of like Plinko on The Price is Right. You release a ball into a field filled with pegs, which the ball bounces off of as it falls downward. When a ball hits a peg, the peg disappears and you score some points. The goal of the game is to clear the field of orange pegs before you run out of balls. It's a simple concept and even if you have no idea what you're doing, you'll succeed. At first, that is. The game slowly becomes more difficult, but by the time it does, you've learned the nuances of shot placement, how to anticipate bounces, how to make the most of powerups, and how to earn an extra ball on nearly every shot.
2. It's more addictive than chocolate-covered crack—MSNBC recently named Peggle as one of the Top Five Most Addictive Games ever, along with titles like EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and Tetris. There is no such thing as a "quick game of Peggle". You'll sit down for five minutes and get up two hours later, happily frustrated, smugly victorious…or both.
3. You can save your shots for bragging rights—Peggle comes with a replay function that not only lets you record a particularly awesome shot for posterity, but also lets you email it to your friends. Pulling off something like this requires equal parts luck and skill, but you will feel like a gaming god if you do. Of course, having "Ode to Joy" blaring in the background doesn't hurt, either.
4. It won't cost ya nothin'—The Deluxe version of Peggle will run you $20, but if you're more frugal-minded (or just plain broke), you can play it online for free. It's smaller than the full version, of course, but because it chooses levels randomly from a set of 20, it has a surprising amount of replayability, just the same.
5. A four year old is better than you at it—The folks at PopCap recently heard about a four-year-old who'd managed to clear an entire field of pegs. Not just the orange pegs, mind you, every last peg on the field. Play a level or two and you'll discover just how tough that is to do. So, you gonna just sit there and let some kid kick your ass at a puzzle game? Well are you?
