Last year Popcap developed Peggle, a title which received 2007 casual game of the year and dozens of media and industry accolades. Now, Popcap has produced the next game in the Peggle series called Peggle Nights. If you’ve never played Peggle, you can read a full review of the game as it will apply to Peggle Nights as well.

It’s tough to think Popcap can improve upon a sleeper success but it just might be possible. Peggle Nights brings back the famous Peggle masters with their classic power-up moves and increases the master count by one with a new Squid Peggle master known as “Marina.” In this installment, you’ll experience another 60 newly designed levels with five stages per Peggle master, this time with a “dream world” theme.

Peggle Nights is as close to an expansion as you can get without directly calling it an expansion. At first glance, you’ll probably say to yourself “this is Peggle with new levels” and, for the most part, you’re on the right track. Popcap stuck to the magic that made the first title a hit, including the same characters, the same game play elements and the same addictive quality.

Our first impressions were a bit lack luster as we spent time looking for how the game differs from the original. Six or so stages into the the game it started to grab our attention much like the original title did, causing everything from addictive shakes and strong desires to continue playing. Peggle Nights matures the level design greatly, stages are crisp artwork backgrounds with many animated pegs and bricks which you’d only find in later tough stages in the original game.

Head over to CasualGamerChick.com to read the full review!

Read on for full press release details.

PopCap Launches Peggle™ Nights for PC

Second Installment of Casual Game of 2007 Winner Takes Players Inside the Dream Worlds of the Peggle Masters; New Peggle Master, Achievements and Challenges

SEATTLE, Washington – September 16, 2008 — PopCap Games, the leading developer and publisher of casual games, today announced the immediate availability of Peggle™ Nights, the much-anticipated follow-up to the original Peggle game, which garnered more than a dozen media and industry accolades including “casual game of the year” following its introduction in early 2007. Peggle Nights sports 60 all-new Adventure Mode levels and 60 new Challenge Mode hurdles, along with a new “Peggle Master” power-up, new kinds of style shots, achievements, and other special bonuses. In addition, Peggle Nights takes players into the “dream worlds” of each of the eleven Peggle Masters, providing five beautifully rendered and themed levels for each character’s secret dreams and aspirations. Peggle Nights carries a retail price of US$19.95; a free trial of the deluxe version is available for download at www.popcap.com. Other leading game portals, including RealArcade, MSN Games, STEAM, Wild Games and Yahoo! Games, will begin offering the game next month.

“We at PopCap love the Peggle ‘master’ characters as much as anyone, so we decided to delve into their personalities a bit further and take a peek inside each one’s dream states,” explained Sukhbir Sidhu, studio director in charge of Peggle and Peggle Nights at PopCap. “We also took the opportunity to incorporate user feedback from the original game by adding more challenges and style shots and ultimately making the game even more achievement- and skill-oriented.”

The original Peggle was named to numerous “best of 2007” awards lists, including being named one of the “Top Ten Video Games of 2007” by PC Gamer magazine. Peggle has been downloaded from the web more than 20 million times since its introduction in February 2007, and has spawned dozens of Facebook groups and clubs and hundreds of YouTube videos.

In the game, players fire a metallic silver ball from the top of the screen, relying on gravity to propel the ball downwards while it ricochets off orange and blue “pegs”. The goal is to clear all the orange pegs from the screen before running out of balls. A moving “bucket” at the bottom of the screen offers free balls, while green power-up pegs give the player special abilities via the Peggle Masters who guide players through the game. These power-ups include explosive area-clearing blasts, lobster claws that serve as pinball-type flippers and “fireballs” that cut through all pegs in their path.

New features in Peggle Nights include:

• New Peggle Master/power-up: “Marina,” the electric squid, brings the number of Peggle Masters / power-ups to 11; her “Shockwave” effect arcs between the first peg hit and the bucket at the bottom, clearing all intervening pegs with a jolt of electricity
• New Trophy/Achievement: In addition to the original game’s “all clear” achievement, Peggle Nights sets an “ace” score for each level; “acing” each level earns a special trophy
• More Trophies: The new game offers four different trophies for the various achievements: completing Adventure Mode, completing Challenge Mode, clearing all levels of all pegs, and “acing” all levels. Oh, and a new trophy room to keep ’em in!
• 60 Newly Designed Levels: Each Peggle Master has five themed “dream state” levels in the game’s main Adventure mode, plus a final five Master levels in which the player chooses the Master/power-up
• 60 New Challenges: Five dozen new Challenge Mode levels, with many fiendishly tricky objectives for players to reach; new types of challenges include “low ball” challenges in which the player tries to get the lowest possible score, Style Shot based challenges and challenges involving specific or combined power-ups
• New Style Shots: More ways to score bonus points based on the player’s aim and timing acumen: “Off the Wall,” “Double Long Shot” and more
• All-New Soundtrack: Maintaining the cultured sensibilities of the original Peggle, the new game offers a mix of original tunes and well-known classical music – including a fully-orchestrated introduction by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra
• Admire Your Skillz: You can now drag and drop replays of your top shots into the open game window to view them
• Power-Up Improvements: Existing power-ups including Tula’s “flower power,” Kat Tut’s “pyramid” and Lord Cinderbottom’s “fireball” have been tweaked to optimize their effectiveness
• Level Packs (Coming Soon): Peggle Nights is designed to accept additional levels and PopCap plans to begin issuing custom-made, in some cases themed, Level Packs

About PopCap
PopCap Games (www.popcap.com) is the leading multi-platform provider of “casual games” — fun, easy-to-learn, captivating computer games that appeal to everyone from age 6 to 106. Based in Seattle, Washington, PopCap was founded in 2000 and has a worldwide staff of over 200 people in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, B.C., Dublin, Ireland and Shanghai. Its games have been downloaded more than 1 billion times by consumers worldwide, and its flagship title, Bejeweled®, has sold more than 25 million units across all platforms. Constantly acclaimed by consumers and critics, PopCap’s games are played on the Web, desktop computers, myriad mobile devices (cell phones, smartphones, PDAs, Pocket PCs, iPod, iPhone and more), popular game consoles (such as Xbox), and in-flight entertainment systems. PopCap is the only casual games developer with leading market share across all major sales channels, including Web portals, retail stores, consoles, mobile phones and MP3 players.

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