Game Review: Peglin

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Roguelikes are quite possibly one of the most crowded genres in video games these days, but have you ever heard of a pachinko-themed roguelike? Well, that's exactly what developer Red Nexus Games claims to deliver in Peglin. Peglin is a roguelike game that sees you launch balls to complete turn-based RPG combat, and it recently arrived on the Nintendo Switch. We're going to be taking a look at that release today, and maybe even discuss the game's origins as well later on in the review. There's a lot going on in this one, so let's dive right in!

Even though it might not be considered all that important for a ball-launching roguelike game, I was surprised to learn that there's practically nothing resembling a story here. There's no throwaway reference to saving a kingdom, fighting a big bad, or anything like that. I'm not even totally sure that the main guy you play as is even called Peglin or not. Admittedly the eShop description does make mention of something involving dragons and gold, but none of that is told to you in-game. I only know of it because I needed said eShop link for this review. I'm sure most people will never even see that little two-sentence story for themselves, and that's a shame. It's not a deal breaker by any means, but the addition of a few bits of flavor text, and maybe a picture or two to go along with it, would've done wonders for the overall presentation. The main characters are actually kind of cute, and it's a shame you never learn anything about them. Oh, and yeah, there are other characters you unlock over the course of the game, but we'll get to them later. Lamenting the lack of a story mode aside, I guess it's time to switch our attention over to discussing gameplay.

As mentioned before, Peglin describes itself as a pachinko roguelike game. I can definitely see the reasoning behind this genre choice, as you basically launch your ball into a play field full of block (replacing pins) and hope for the best. Each overworld map in Peglin is separated into several squares, with you having to go through about a dozen or so to clear said map. Squares can have events, treasure, a shop, or even a battle on them. Battles come in three varieties: standard monster encounters, a sub-boss, and the boss of the current map/level. Battles can also take place during some of the events found on those respective squares, but they're usually more gimmick fights than the outright win or die bouts of survival you'll find elsewhere. Your Peglin has health points, gold, balls that serve as your action deck, and relics at his disposal. Your life points start at 100, and you can gain or lose points permanently over the course of the game. You can also gain and lose health in the short term as well. It probably won't shock anyone, but losing all your health means that it's game over. Gold is mainly acquired through battle, and you use said gold for just about every in-game action. Upgrading balls, healing lost health, or even purchasing new equipment, all costs gold. Balls are how you attack, and these come in many varieties. Some only attack one enemy, some attack multiple enemies at once, others unlock skills depending on what they land on in the field of play, others can heal you, and so on. Relics are permanent upgrades to your current character build, and are probably the single most important factor as to whether a run is successful or not.

Peglin is a roguelike in the purest sense, and that means that each run is going to be drastically different depending on the choices you make, and also on whether or not the RNG is in your favor. Learning how to play is really important, and sadly I have to say that Peglin doesn't really offer you much in the way of a tutorial. Everything I learned, for better or worse, I learned through trial and error. For example, it may make sense to avoid combat so you can save your power for the bosses, but combat is one of the few consistent ways to get gold. As I said earlier, gold is used for everything in-game, and you'll need it to refine your ball collection. This is done by not only choosing the best balls whenever they come up for purchase, but making sure you power up the better ones, and try to eliminate balls that are useless to whatever strategy you're going for. Also, event spaces aren't always positive, and some choices made in them can lead to great regret if you're not careful. Some events give you huge rewards, but cut down your total health. It's often a risk/reward scenario, and it doesn't always play out in your favor. It can also suck if you end up at shop space if you have no money at all to spend on it. If that all that wasn't bad enough, there are some sub-bosses that are more dangerous to their main versions, and getting tangled up with them can bring disaster. In short you're going to want to plan, plan, plan, and pray that things go your way whenever you make a move on the map. You can't get to all the cool fights if you're left too weak by the spaces on the way. Speaking of cool fights, I guess it's time to discuss combat.

Combat in Peglin is turn-based, with your balls determining how it is you're going to attack. You do have some control where you launch your ball, but it's best to just go for whatever looks best and hope it doesn't all blow up in your face. You can never really plot out a ball's trajectory until it's done, and there are some pins on the board that mess up even the best laid plans. Depending on how many pins your ball hits, you might do pull off a critical hit, a normal attack, or even a special skill. All of that depends on the ball being used, and what you hit with it. Don't be surprised if a ball just goes straight to the bottom though, as that's just the luck of the draw sometimes. It's also worth mentioning that some balls allow you to choose which monster you want to attack, and if you don't have that choice, your attack will most likely hit the closest enemy. Once you attack, the enemies all take their turns. This usually involves moving closer to you so they can attack at close range, but some enemies can attack from far away, and new enemies can also be summoned to the field of battle. Since hitting pins on a board removes them from play, you'll need to refill them in order to continue to do damage. This is done by hitting a special refill pin, but doing so when you don't want to refill the board can mess up your plans. There are also bombs that are placed on most boards, and these act as special attacks that do a set amount of damage to every enemy on screen, and that attack is in addition to whatever normal attack you would've made that turn. You'll often want to go for all the bombs you can, but they unfortunately do not refill with the refill pin. Winning comes by way of defeating every enemy, and dying is the end of your run. It's all pretty simple I guess in that regard.

That pretty much covers gameplay, but like I said before, you're going to be doing a lot of trial and error. Most early runs will end quickly, but you can finish a successful run in about an hour or so depending on if you use the fast forward function or not. That's right, the game does allow you to speed up some gameplay elements, which makes sense since you don't really have much control after you launch a ball anyway. Completing a run, either by finishing the last board or by dying, unlocks anything you picked up in the custom mode, and also adds entries into the game's encyclopedia. This is might be unimportant for some players, but it's a nice touch. Completing a run successfully can also unlock new difficulties, and achieving specific goals unlocks new Peglins to play as. These Peglins don't really play all that different than the main one, but offer a new challenge for those looking for it. One downside to Peglin's gameplay is that there are no permanent, cross-run upgrades to be found. Every single run starts you from the base stats, and this can put off some players who might hope that later runs would become easier through unlocking said upgrades. It too is by no means a deal-breaker as far as enjoyment goes, but I felt it worth mentioning for those who might be expecting it.

I have to admit that I expected a little more in the presentation department when I first booted up Peglin. I learned about this game via the Indie-focused Nintendo Direct, and expected it to blow me away based on the time give to the game. Then I looked up the game and learned that it started life on mobile devices. This makes so much sense to me now that I know it, and it also means that we get all the issues that come with mobile ports here. The visuals are decent but not ground-breaking, the animations are just okay, and the music is good but forgettable. Nothing about the game really stands out in the audio or visual departments, even though neither are bad by any stretch. This is still a fun game, but there's a big part of me that wants to say you should just pick it up on the Google Play Store if you're interested. I also assume that the lack of a story comes from those mobile origins too, and that makes me wonder what was even added in this new release. Maybe nothing? Then there's the fact that I kept coming across references to a game called Peggle, which is not mentioned anywhere in this game's marketing materials at all. I'm not sure if the game is made by people who worked on that one, but I can say that it was done by a development team with a different name. I really do hope it's the same people in a new company though, as this is pretty much a straight rip-off of Peggle, but in a roguelike form. Anyhow, this was supposed to be where I talked about the graphics and music, but I got off track. Suffice it to say that Peglin gets both right, but I ultimately found that neither have the charm that keeps and draws in players.

Even though I bashed the game a bit just a minute ago for being a mobile game that might be a rip-off of another similar title, I do have to say that Peglin is a lot of fun overall. Each run is quick and fast-moving, and I appreciated how much better I got in each subsequent go at the game. There's a decent amount of content here too, even if most of it is just variations on the same main game. All of this would be great, if I didn't have issue with its price on the Switch. I've heard of Switch taxes before, but I think that $19.99 is a bit too high for this game. Not only can you several amazing roguelikes for half that price, I have to remind everyone that this was a mobile game. Not only was it a mobile game, but it was a free mobile game. As far as I know, it's still free to this day, and that just makes its price sting all the more. That's a really tough thing to get beyond, but I guess if money is no object to you, you can probably grab this one now and not give it a second though.

Sadly, I have a few too many reservations about Peglin to give it a blanket recommendation, but I do think it might be worth picking up for fans of the roguelike genre. Casual roguelike fans will find something to enjoy, and seasoned roguelike veterans are sure to appreciate the unique gameplay elements. Part of me wants to also add in that it might interest fans of pachinko-style games, but that feels like such a narrowly specific niche, that I'm not even sure it exists. I guess if you're that fan, pick it up also. Lastly, I guess the one bonus of this being a mobile port would be that you can play it directly without any in-game purchases or the like. Anyway, those are my thoughts on Peglin. I'll see you all in the next one!

Check Out Peglin on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/peglin-switch/

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Story: N/A
Gameplay: B+
Graphics: B
Music/Sound: B
Value: C

Overall: B

Pros:
+ A unique take on the roguelike genre.
+ There's a lot of humor in some of the events that actually had me chuckling here and there.
+ Each run is unique, with some feeling like you're playing on God Mode, and others feeling like everyone is out to get you.
+ The graphics and music aren't above and beyond the norm, but both are more than serviceable.

+/- I'm not sure what connection this game has to Peggle, but if it doesn't have an official one, this might be a rip-off.

Cons:
- The lack of an in-game story is a disappointment.
- There are no permanent upgrades that assist players in future runs. Each run always starts from zero.
- Each game of Peglin can vary greatly, and sometimes it feels like you shouldn't even have bothered turning it on.
- It's available now on mobile devices for free, so paying the somewhat high price of $19.99 on the Switch just feels strange.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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