PC Game Review Spring Up!

Peggle clone Spring Up! takes on a gardening twist. This Breakout-style game starts with the ball at the top of the screen where players point and shoot in hopes of hitting as many like-colored pegs and bricks. That’s where the similarity to Peggle ends. Unless Spring Up! is for a child, stick with the stellar Peggle.

Young kids will appreciate Spring Up! because you can’t lose the game — it has no rules, minimums, or goals to frustrate the kids. They can just keep shooting the ball until all the pegs and bricks fall down. The main goal is to clear the pegs and bricks, but they must be hit by a ball of the same color to fall down. Catch the falling items for added points. Four available power ups also fall for the catching. One makes the paddle wider, another ups the score multiplier, the third adds points, and the fourth and only negative power up shrinks the paddle.

As you rack up points in adventure mode, use the money to buy junk for the garden. The garden contains $ all over, which cost $5000. Click a $ and that particular $ price goes up to $20,000 while the others remain at $5000 until clicked. The garden holds 50 items and it’s not really customizeable. All you can do is click which item you want next. That’s all. No moving stuff around, changing colors, or anything.

Spring Up! has a quirk — not sure if it’s a bug or a work-around. Sometimes falling objects don’t make it to the bottom and just sit there. I mean after all, if a volleyball can get caught on a gym’s ceiling (which it did at a tournament I watched last week), physics can explain why an object gets stuck. When the object stops moving and all loose objects fall, the stuck object disappears and another ball awaits shooting. No harm, no foul.

Except for the locations and number of pegs and objects, the scenes don’t change much. Fans do show up to blow falling objects to make them harder to catch for bonus points. The game could use more obstacles like the fans to keep players guessing.

The game offers no challenge. Little variety. Unexciting graphics. But it could be a great game for young children people who hate losing, or those who need a simple game with that won’t aggravate.