Never thought you would see a review for this game here right? It’s a little known, or well known, fact, depending on how much you know me, that I’m a huge Peanuts fan. To this day I watch all of the holiday specials, even the ones that are mediocre and people don’t like, and I will eventually get around to watching the movie when it’s released. Knowing that I was going to get this game was really a no brainer, I just had to wait for it to go on sale which it totally did during the holidays. Did it live up to my Peanuts expectations? Keep reading to find out.
While there isn’t much of a story that goes along with this game since it’s more of a child’s game, there is a simple little story of the whole Peanuts gang playing hide and seek. Snoopy’s job is to follow the jelly bean trail that was left and find each character. Each character has his or her own level that is basically devoted to them, and inside that level are more levels along with a boss fight to unlock a character at the end. Note that while you unlock other famous Peanuts characters, you will always play as Snoopy.
I went in expecting a little more from this game, and I have to say that I was a little disappointed. The levels, although each one is different, are basically the same thing over and over again. You have to get from point A to point B, collecting as many jelly beans and Beagle Scouts as you can the first time around, before completing the game as a whole and then going back and doing a collectible cleanup. Sure there are obstacles along the way in each level, but they were more annoying then challenging and the game is actually super-fast to play through since none of the levels are even that long. Even while on the search for your remaining collectibles, each level goes by quickly and after the collectibles are found there isn’t any kind of replay value.
Like I said before, this is basically a child’s game so that controls are super simple and there isn’t really anything complicated that you have to learn in order to play this game. The good thing is that even though its super simple, everything runs extremely smooth for the most part. I did experience a little lag during some of the later levels towards the end of the game, but other than that there weren’t any game breaking bugs or glitches.
For such a small game, the graphics are actually really nice and one of the highlights of the game. The whole Peanuts gang looks like they came straight out of the movie and into the game and each level was created with a lot of detail. This being a side scrolling type of game, the background details are very important since they can’t be too bland and these graphics are very well done that you’ll always have something interesting to look at when you move Snoopy through each level.
The trophies for this game are extremely easy and there are only 23 of them including the platinum trophy. If you’re going to have a difficult time with any of them it will probably be the one that involves not getting hit during a boss fight, although I do have a Weekly Trophy Tip posted on it just to help you out, and the collectibles one. Just to let you know there’s also a co-op related trophy so you can either use a second controller or get someone to help you out via Share Play.
Unrelated Note: What a piece of crap Share Play is. I used Share Play with a friend, thanks LMD, in order to get my co-op trophy and barely got it before Share Play completely crapped out. Both of us had good internet connections, even though Playstation didn’t think so and we weren’t even in game for a minute before we were both booted from the session. My first and only experience with Share Play turned out to be not worth it. It took too long to setup and I didn’t even get an hours worth of playtime out of it. Thanks for nothing Share Play.
While there is no multiplayer for this game, there is good old fashioned co-op and one trophy to go along with it. I can’t say much for the co-op since Share Play didn’t want to work for me, but I guess it would be fun since your friend can play along as Woodstock. There are also a couple of special triggers within each level in case you do play with someone that are supposed to create a few special actions. If you can’t play with someone, then it’s not a problem because you can get all of the collectibles on your own. You only need someone to play as Woodstock for less than a minute in order to get the co-op trophy.
Overall I give this game a 2.5 out of 5
What’s Great:
+ Nice graphics that match the movie characters and nice background designs for each level.
+ Simple care-free game that doesn’t require much thinking.
What’s Not So Great:
– No replay value. Once you do everything the game as to offer you’re basically done.
– Sometimes the game lags during certain levels, it’s not every level but when you’re going back to clean up the collectibles it gets annoying.
– Although each level is different it’s basically the same thing over and over again which gets really boring really fast.
If you have kids that you want to get this game for or if you’re a huge Peanuts fan like me and want to play the game for yourself, I would suggest waiting for a really great sale before getting this game. It’s not worth the $50 price tag that the game currently totes since you’re going to play it once and forget about it. What this game was, was basically a money grab since it came out the same time as the release of the movie and really nothing more. Unless you can find it on sale for less than…I would say $20, I would give it a definite pass. You can go along knowing you didn’t miss anything spectacular.
1 Broke Gamer Girl 