I started with Bjorn, the gallant unicorn from Peggle. Bjorn's special power, activated by hitting one of two green pegs on a board, is similar to his original perk. It's basically a guideline showing where your ball will bounce based on the angle you shoot it. While it used to be a simple blue line, in Peggle 2 it's a bright rainbow with sparkles that turns to fire if you're going to shoot the ball at a slide that will hit multiple pegs.
Aside from Bjorn, there are four other cryptic Masters making their first appearance in the Peggle series. Each gets his or her own fanfare music, peg-hitting noises, and unique power-ups. They're all customizable as well, and before you jump into a level you can change their outfits, which impacts what type of animations they do. Only two options were shown for each character in my demo, but as you complete levels and objectives there's an opportunity to unlock more.
Jeffrey the Lazy Troll is one of the new Masters, but it's the goats riding around on his head that had me laughing the most. They get extremely concerned when you only have a few balls left – making nervous faces – and they keep close watch on the balls as they bounce through each board. Jeffrey's power-up allows him to use a massive bowling-ball esque boulder, known as a “bowlder,” that will shoot down at pegs and clear a big path, similar to Lord Cinderbottom’s Fireball powerup from Peggle, but larger and less predictable. It was particularly useful against Peggle 2's new armored bricks, which need to be hit twice in order to get rid of them.
Berg the Yeti is my favorite of the new Masters, as his power-up was original, festive, and beautiful. It activates immediately when you hit a green peg and works for the next shot as well. When triggered, the entire board frosts up like a window when the temperature dips, and any peg you hit will slowly push in to the other pegs around it. The strategy here is to shoot your peg up high, so that it has the chance to push in to as many pegs below it as possible.
Gnorman the Gnome is an adorable little guy who made a robot costume to appear larger. Hilariously, the robot suit is still only about two feet tall. Poor Gnorman. His power up, Ubervolt, is activated as soon as you hit a green peg and it charges up your ball to zap the nearest two pegs it hits. It reminded me of Splork’s Big Bang power-up from Peggle, but with a lot more pizzazz since it could zap tons of pegs rather than a specific area. Again, it seemed like a good idea to shoot this one up high. The sound on Gnorman's levels is unique as well, giving off an 8-bit vibe when you hit pegs.
The last Master, Luna, is the only female this time around (unless you use one of Gnorman's costumes to make him look like a girl), and she's a cute youngster that also happens to be dead. When you activate her power, Nightshade, she transforms in to a creepy demon child, and on your next two turns she makes all of the blue pegs on the board see-through. When you shoot the ball with the power on, it floats through all of the blue pegs and only bounces on an orange. Once the power goes away, the blue pegs you shot through don't reappear, allowing you to potentially create paths to hard-to-reach orange pegs. It felt a lot different than any of the other powers we've seen before, and added an interesting mechanic to an incredibly endearing character.
