The Xbox One is overflowing with downloadable games lately thanks to the ID@Xbox program. Last week we got Outlast and Sixty Second Shooter Prime, and today Zombie Driver Ultimate Edition had a surprise launch. But when the new console launched last year, players only had a few downloadable games to choose from. The first such title to qualify as a hit was undoubtedly Peggle 2 from Electronic Arts and PopCap. The game later arrived on Xbox 360 as well.
One of Peggle 2's few weaknesses compared to the original is that it launched with only five Peggle Masters (playable characters). Today EA alleviated such complaints by releasing a new downloadable content pack for the Xbox One version: "Jimmy Lightning's Bigger, Better Balls." This follows "Windy's Master Pack" from back in April. Both DLCs add new characters, levels, and Achievements – for the low price of $2 per pack.
Get the new characters
To get the new characters, you'll first have to download a title update. Once that's out of the way, head to the new Store option from the game's main menu. You'll find descriptions for both DLC packs. Prospective buyers can even watch a short preview video for each Master that highlights that character's special shot and unlockable outfits.
Having purchased one or both characters, you'll find their new levels by heading to Single Player and then scrolling all the way to the right, past the Celestial Realm levels. From there, you'll see a "More Adventure!" icon that leads to the new DLC level sets.
Both Windy and Jimmy Lightning each come with 10 new adventure levels, increasing the game's total number of adventure levels to 80. Completing one of the new character's sets will unlock his or her Trials levels. Players can unlock three extra outfits per character by finishing that Master's Adventure and Trials, as well as completing most of the secondary Adventure objectives.
Character spotlight
The first downloadable Peggle Master is new to the series. She is a combination bird and fairy – a bird with fairy wings and a wand, basically. By shooting a green peg to activate Windy's special skill "Fairy Flock," a swarm of four pink butterflies will erupt and turn random pegs into purple pegs. Hitting more than one purple peg during a level will get you a huge score boost and likely an extra life or two.
Today's new Master Jimmy Lightning is actually a returning character from the first game. You might remember him as the totally rad skateboarding chipmunk. Jimmy's special skill is the pinball-like Multiball. It causes three balls to bounce around the level, hopefully hitting lots of pegs along the way. A new spotlight effect adds some welcome flair to the ball bouncing action.
Achievements and more
Each character DLC adds three new Achievements worth a total of 225 GamerScore. The Achievements are for beating that character's Adventure levels, Trials levels, and for completing all of the new secondary objectives (the main game's objectives must be finished first). Nothing creative, but they certainly provide incentive to run through and master all of the new content.
Along with the previous update comes a new feature that we requested in our original review: Colorblind mode! Enable the setting from the Options menu to make little symbols appear inside of the purple and green pegs during gameplay. This allows colorblind gamers to tell those pegs apart from regular red ones.
The only significant Peggle 2 criticism that EA has yet to address is the Xbox One version's lack of leaderboards. In-game leaderboards are a standard feature in modern games, allowing competitive gamers to compare their scores against others and try to outdo them. Leaderboards an really add a lot of replay value to score-based games like Peggle 2. It's strange that Peggle 2 still has no leaderboards, especially since the Xbox 360 version that launched in May does have them.
Leaderboards aside, Peggle 2 fans will get plenty of fun from the new DLC packs. The number of levels and Achievements you get for the price is surprisingly fair. Xbox One players should grab the DLC from within the game itself, as we can't buy Xbox One DLC from Xbox.com just yet (argh). The Xbox 360 version hasn't gotten the DLC yet; hopefully EA brings the new Masters to that version soon as well.
- Peggle 2 – Xbox One – 2.1 GB - $11.99 – Xbox.com Store Link