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Oh dear. No sooner do I ween myself off my chronic Advance Wars: Days of Ruin addiction than we get a release date for Peggle DS. That date is March 3, 2009. Wonderful. Now I can waste as much time playing it on my DS as I waste playing it on the PC. Effectively doubling the amount of time I waste on a daily basis. Thanks!
Peggle: Dual Shot Coming in March [Wired]
Out of obligation (and a dash of personal interest in the series still intact) I'll be playing through the rest of Silent Hill: Homecoming this weekend. The game ships to North America on Tuesday, meaning a review is in order. It's going to mean a bit of backtracking, unfortunately. Perhaps re-tracking, as I'll have to revert to an older save to get the job done. More about that on Tuesday.
Otherwise, I might tinker around with Doom III — never did get around to playing it — and punishing myself with some Wario Land: Shake It! challenge missions. Add prepping for a Tokyo vacation and TGS coverage and you got yourself a weekend? How's about you?
Know what's awesome? Peggle. Scoff if you must, but it's taking every molecule of willpower to continue with this post instead of just saying "Fuck it" and playing some Peggle. Fortunately, the Xbox Live Arcade release of PopCap Games' Peggle appears to be inching ever closer to release, now slated for a "sometime in 2008" release. The price? Cheap, at 800 Microsoft Points according to a new Talking About Games interview.
Sure, this whole level pack business will drive the price up, but its Microsoft Points, imaginary fun money with no real value. Plus, there's four-player multiplay via Xbox Live planned. Off to find a new vein for my Peggle addiction!
Peggle on XBLA: 4 player multiplayer, 800 MS Points, no level packs at launch [Talking About Games via X3F]
Peggle fans can now cement their addiction, since PopCap's now bringing the popular casual game to DS with a little help from Q Entertainment, developers of Rez, Lumines and Meteos.
Peggle DS will be hitting shelves in North America in Winter 2008 for $US 29.95, and Q Entertainment will be adding new features that aren't in the PC, Mac or iPod versions of the game. No details yet on what those features will be, but the announcement promises more levels than in any other version of the game, remastered input controls and "surprise additions".
Full announcement follows the jump:
Have you ever played Peggle? If not, it's one of the more surprisingly addictive titles to come out of the PopCap Games stable of brightly coloured "casual" games. Even if you have played Peggle—or Peggle Extreme, the free Half-Life themed version that's included in The Orange Box—an 18 million point round might not blow your hair back. So when watching this clip, via Waxy, the first minute or so might not impress. The fanatical, bordering-on-insane planning might, however, as demonstrated moments later might. It also might frighten.
Gamasutra has an interesting interview up with some of PopCap's people — co-founder John Vechey, CEO David Roberts and PR director Garth Chouteau — talking about the PopCap model and structure and the casual market at large. It's a reasonably lengthy interview with a couple of gems contained within:
It is very much a multiplatform, multichannel, multipartner business where our goal is to get our games anywhere they're going to be great, anywhere we can. If your fridge can make a great Bejeweled experience, by god, we'd have your fridge playing Bejeweled.
Yes, Peggle is coming for the DS. Don't act so surprised. John Vechey, co-founder of Peggle devs PopCap, announced the title at the Casual Connect conference, which is being held in Amsterdam. That should be all you need to know! Peggle, for the DS. If you're wondering about a release date or price, sorry, they don't have that yet. If you're wondering what all the fuss is about, consider that Peggle on the PC has now been downloaded over 10 million times.
PopCap's Peggle bouncing over to DS [Pocket Gamer]
Jason Kapalka, co—founder and Chief Creative Officer of PopCap Games, sat down with Alec Meer to chat about a whole host of issues — unicorns, match three games, and the casual market. It's an interesting interview that touches on a number of issues surrounding the casual market: who's playing these games? Is there a market outside the aggressively casual? And is PopCap returning 'credibility' to puzzle games?
As far as we're concerned, puzzle games never lost any credibility. I think the resurgence you're seeing now with things like the Wii and casual games in general is really just the natural state of things... as with computers and the internet, their early phases were dominated by geeky hardcore early-adopter types, but later they became much more mass market and universal in their use and acceptance. Why shouldn't video games be the same way? It makes no sense for them to remain a ghetto exclusively for twenty-something males who like shooting imaginary aliens.
Zing! It's a great little interview and well worth a read through if you've got the time.
PopCap on Casual, Peggle & Valve [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
And the Xbox Live renaissance continues. Ikaruga and Rez was good enough news as it was, but Peggle? Appears so! An ESRB rating for a 360 version of the game's turned up, which while not guaranteeing any kind of timeframe does at least guarantee an eventual appearance. Which is super-great news. Peggle on a big TV while sitting on the couch has "good times" scrawled all over it. Also appearing are listings for XBLA/Xbox Originals versions of Bliss Island and Ultra Bust-A-Move, but after Peggle we don't have enough care left in us for them. Sorry.
Rumor: Peggle, Bliss Island and UBAM to XBLA [X3F]
Well it's a banner day for iPod gamers, if such a thing exists. Along with Sonic the Hedgehog from Sega, that king of casual PopCap Games have released an iPod version of their popular puzzler Peggle onto the iTunes Store today. Sharing Sonic's $US 4.99 price point, the game contains all 55 levels, 10 magical powers, 75 Grand Master challenges and th two-player duel mode from the PC and Mac versions. The game's aim and shoot mechanic seems perfect for the iPod's click wheel, making me wonder how well Bubble Bobble would translate. If I had one of those newer, cooler iPods I would definitely purchase Peggle, simply because of the comfort I found playing it while I waited for the Orange Box to download over Steam. Of course I never played it again after that, but I am a fickle gamer, dammit.
