Snoopy’s Grand Adventure Review

The Peanuts have been around for many years and are among the most recognizable and beloved characters ever created. Over the years, these characters have been a part of every type of media and product you can imagine, including many video games based on Snoopy. The little white dog gets another game under his belt with the release of the side-scrolling platformer Snoopy’s Grand Adventure.

Story

Snoopy’s Grand Adventure begins with the Peanuts kids meeting at Charlie Brown’s house for hide and seek. The hide-and-seek game becomes an adventure, with Snoopy traveling to bright new worlds to find the rest of the gang. Our quiet friend collects jelly beans, saves the Woodstock troop of Beagle Scouts, obtains keys for different power-ups, and searches for his buddies along the way.

Gameplay

Platforming

The mechanics of the game are simple enough. This game was aimed at children, and it shows, but that doesn’t mean it’s terrible. It’s a typical side-scrolling game reminiscent of those found on earlier generations of consoles, such as the Genesis and NES. Each set of levels presents different characteristics. The jungle levels have vines that Snoopy can climb and swing across. The bunny levels have rock formations that move around constantly. Even the moon has different gases that affect Snoopy’s speed. These subtle changes in level design keep things fresh just when they start to feel dull.

Collectibles

This isn’t a game targeted toward an older audience. A player over 10 years old will probably get bored quickly with this game. The levels are easy to travel around without fear of hitting an enemy. The platforming isn’t challenging and doesn’t require much precision when making jumps. Secret areas aren’t hard to find, and collectibles are generally out in the open for players to obtain. The 300 jellybeans per level to collect are a bit tedious. It feels unnecessary, especially when you must do multiple playthroughs on most levels to get them all if you haven’t unlocked the power-up needed to get to specific areas.

Enemies

Enemies in Snoopy’s Grand Adventure are not much trouble at all. The game does everything to make sure that you never die. Enemies don’t die, either. You can bonk an enemy on the head, but that’s the extent of the violence. If Snoopy gets hit, his heart floats up, and all he has to do is jump and hit it to regain full health. If that’s not enough, cookies are scattered everywhere, giving our dog more health. The most challenging parts of the game are probably the boss fights, and even those are relatively simple. Examples are hitting a giant Peppermint Patty face with baseballs and jumping up a life-size pinball machine to catch the bunny.

Final Thoughts

While Snoopy’s Grand Adventure isn’t the greatest platformer of all time, it is a competent and enjoyable experience worthy of at least a few hours of gameplay. Children will love the colorful, inventive levels and recognizable characters. The game is easily accessible for players of all ages and offers enough depth to keep little ones engaged for quite some time, with numerous collectibles and levels to complete. I’d recommend this to younger children and fans of The Peanuts. This is a decent platformer and a great game to introduce to your little ones.