The final shot bounces off the penultimate orange peg, missing the last one hopelessly, but hitting the life-saving Free Ball Bucket. But no - it’s hit the rim. It’s not going in.

It’s bounced back out - toward the final peg. A drum roll starts, the camera zooms in on the critical moment, and everything plays out in slow-mo. It hits, it explodes, opera music blares. The ball ignites with a rainbow-colored vapor trail. The remaining pegs are wiped. The words “EXTREME FEVER” are meaninglessly plastered across the screen. The ball dives into the 100,000 point hole, which erupts in a volcano of green stars. We are amazing. To level 2!

There are 60 levels in Peggle, and each only involves about ten or twelve actual clicks. You fire a ball, it bounces off the pegs and you try to hit all of the orange ones before you run out of balls. It’s a cross between pool and pinball. Simple, but presented with such flair, that it’s impossible to resist. You will, even if you are an actual Buddhist, find yourself throwing your fists in the air when you win, proclaiming yourself the Crown Prince of Space. They’ve happened upon a formula that transforms single clicks into close shaves, lucky shots, impossible last-minute comebacks and spectacular feats of skill almost every time. Of Peggle’s 60 levels, around 50 of them we won on our last or second-to-last ball.