It’s A Pretty Great Snoopy Game, Charlie Brown

Snoopy’s imagination adventures may have ruined the Peanuts comic strip, but they’re the perfect fodder for a solid movie tie-in platformer.

Thought it shares the movie’s 3D look, The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy’s Grand Adventure doesn’t have much to do with Charlie Brown and friends’ big-screen debut. The kids are playing hide and seek, and Snoopy (with the aid of co-op companion Woodstock) sets off to find them the only way he knows how — fantastical canine hallucinations.

When I saw the first trailer for the game I thought it looked like a solid little platforming game, and it is indeed just that. Snoopy wanders through a series of themed worlds, each ending with a boss inspired by one of Charles M. Schultz’s comic strip children. The Lucy stage, set on the surface of the moon, culminates in Snoopy running from a giant Lucy robot who smashes everything in her path. Seems appropriate.

Behaviour Interactive does some lovely things with movement in the game. The various costumes Snoopy can don that give him the ability to break down walls, climb vines or gravity jump, while level-specific features like swinging vines, gravity wells and strange pockets of frictionless gas keep manoeuvring the beagle interesting. They have even worked in some of the kid-friendlist aerial combat ever.

The Peanuts: Snoopy’s Grand Adventure is the perfect game for a parent to play with a child. Little ones can take control of Woodstock to aid in Snoopy’s quest, or just stand by and giggle uproariously, as my children do.

Snoopy’s Grand Adventure is available now for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Wii U and 3DS.