Peglin

Written by Elliot Hilderbrand on 9/4/2024 for SWI  

My first time with Peglin was interesting. Not that I didn't have fun, but more of a what-the-hell-am-I-supposed-to-be-doing kind of interesting. There is no story to speak of, no opening monologue; instead, you’re dropped right into the gameplay. I didn’t understand a single idea that Peglin was trying to show me. Right away, I assume I’m playing a version of The Price is Right’s Plinko. In a way, that is exactly what is happening. I’m collecting items and randomly selecting power-ups without knowing what they do while still trying to learn what to do myself.

After each ball finishes its run, my green monster, who sits on the top left above the board, attacks the monster who is on the top right half. My guy swings, giving damage to the opposing monster, who doesn’t hit back but moves a step closer to my character. Eventually he can come into swinging range of my character, but in the first world map that happens rarely. The process repeats until I finish the level by killing all the attacking monsters.

The board of Peglin reminds me a lot of Plinko, the Price is Right game segment many of us would watch when we stayed home sick from school. Are you familiar? In Peglin, you have a ball and a field of pegs that you are trying to hit. You begin by aiming your ball in whatever direction you feel called to. The more pegs you hit on your way down, the better the attack your character will do after the ball has fallen to the bottom of the peg field. You begin with three regular, plain, and boring balls. As you progress, you can gain relics that can change the types of balls you have, upgrade existing balls, or even give you extra turns. There are too many effects to speak of, plenty that I’m sure I haven’t even come across or chosen because other choices made more sense to me. That is the first place where the Roguelike elements begin to show in Peglin. Once the ball has cleared the pegged field, your character atop the board will battle with a monster or swarm of monsters. Clearing out the group will finish the board and move you on to selecting the next site to do battle. You can also just die, forcing you to restart; that is always frustrating, and usually beyond your control, just a slave to the bounce.

At the end of each battle, you can choose to heal up to 20% of your health, purchase new balls, or upgrade existing ones. This is another of the big roguelight elements of Peglin. In my first few play throughs I found myself always healing, and perhaps purchasing a new ball. But you only earn so much gold in each battle that you don’t always get to purchase several upgrades. Sometimes saving you money for the next battle, or the one after that is the smart move. This is where most of the strategy of Peglin lies. You can aim your ball before shooting it onto the board, but it feels so random at times where it bounces, what it bounces off of; I don’t feel like I have much control over that part of the game.

Typically, once you have finished a round on that board, you have a decision to make. You can shoot your ball into the left or right bottom exit; this will move your character to the next zone down. You often have two choices to make. Choices include a cutscene where there is a barter of some sort to make, a treasure to chose from, a boss to battle, a bigger boss to battle, or a regular match. I found it possible to get though a lot of the world map without having to do too many fights. That left me a little weaker when it comes to the world boss, the final choice you eventually have to make, no way around that one. This, again, is the last significant roguelight element of Peglin, and it is where the rest of your strategizing comes into play. You can, for the most part, control which board you want to go to next. Sometimes, there are too many rogue pegs in the way, or you get a bad bounce and get knocked into the other exit, forcing you to go to the board you didn’t want to end up on.

Boss fights are my favorite. Typically, there is some boss mechanic or something unique about these fights. I enjoyed the one in the second world where you are fighting a grim reaper type character who doesn’t do much damage to you until he is standing right next to you, and then one-shots you if you haven’t dealt enough damage to defeat in time.

My first game got me to the boss fight on the first map, where I met an untimely end. My second go around, I then knew how most of the mechanics worked and made it to the second map’s final boss before coming very close to winning before being sliced by the Grim Reaper. It doesn’t take long to get the understanding and gameplay down. Not simple, but easy to understand. Complex if you choose to really look into what types of balls to go after, or when you should heal, or when you should save your gold for the next time. I found it better to heal in the last three rounds or so before a world boss fight, giving me the best chance to be full up on my health, something you almost always need to be at before trying to take on a boss.

Peglin is hiding how deep of a title it is. A simple Plinko style game with more Roguelight elements to it than you might think. How you choose to go through the boards in each world, which balls to try and purchase or upgrade; all of them hidden behind a simple, but fun and enjoyable game. There are still characters I have yet to unlock because I’m either not good enough, or Peglin is a little to hard for me. Not sure where I sit on that idea. You’ll find yourself playing one more game time after time. A great title for the Switch, especially if you’re someone who carries your Switch around with you.