Thank you Activision for sending us this game to review!

Snoopy’s Grand Adventure is a tie-in with the recently released Peanuts movie.  While I have yet to see this movie, I have grown up enjoying the comics and A Charlie Brown Christmas since both have been around longer than I have been alive.  If you haven’t seen the movie yet, there are some references, but nothing story breaking or spoiling as this is a separate adventure.  

All of the neighborhood kids have decided to play hide and go seek; however, none of them have returned. Snoopy starts to get worried and sets off to find them one by one.   Each child is hidden in a different area and can only be retrieved after conquering the boss that’s guarding them.  New areas become available as keys are found to unlock them. Other hidden keys unlock costumes for Snoopy to grant him exclusive abilities while equipping them.

Like many 3D platformer games there are obstacles to scale, enemies to jump on top of, and plenty of jelly beans to collect.  Each level also has six hidden Beagle Scouts (yellow birds that look like Woodstock) to locate as well.  Perfecting the levels requires multiple replays as you unlock and use outfits to enter into areas that were previously inaccessible.

Some of the costumes grant Snoopy the ability to climb fences, locate hidden rooms, turn enemies into jumpable platforms, and low gravity jumping.   If Snoopy is not wearing a costume, you can extend his jump momentum by using his ears as a helicopter propeller.  

The controls and gameplay in general is pretty simple and well suited for a younger audience.  The Y button is used for selecting items while the B button is used for jumping and propelling Snoopy’s ears.  The D-pad or analog controls can direct Snoopy’s movement.

The level design has some nice variety as the locations range from jungle terrain to the lunar surface to Snoopy flying his dog house to take down the infamous Red Baron.  The enemies can be temporarily disabled by pouncing on them, but they will regain consciousness before too long.  Fortunately, they are usually easily avoided and if you do get hurt, you can often reclaim your lost health heart before it floats out of reach.  While I liked that game mechanic, it added frustration when the heart was impossible to get back.  In those rare instances it was more of a tease than a help.  Dog treats are scattered throughout the levels and they can restore some of Snoopy’s health.    

I found the temple levels frustratingly hard compared to the ones later in the game.  The enemies in those levels threw objects that were difficult to avoid at times.  Thankfully, for each defeated boss I got an additional health heart.  If I’m feeling up to it, I’ll have a better chance at perfecting those levels with more health and costumes at my disposal.  Completing the game without redoing many of them took me less than six hours.

My kids enjoyed perfecting my jelly bean count for some of the levels and Snoopy’s Grand Adventure is suitable for people for all ages. Seasoned gamers will not find this game or the boss battles very challenging at all.  

The inconsistent difficulty spikes may frustrate younger kids and adults like myself.  The 3D graphics are cute but not optimized for the 3DS and ran poorly.  Switching to 2D mode helped a little bit.  

Unfortunately, I have experienced several crashes that dropped me back to the 3DS menu.  One of these crashes was right after I beat the final boss which was incredibly lame and I didn’t see the purpose or what I did to actually win the game.  On some of the bosses, you have to avoid their attacks, while others simply require you to stay alive until the time runs out.     

In the end,  Snoopy’s Grand Adventure is cute, but it has some flaws.  Before being given a review code, I purchased the game on sale for $10 and at that price it’s worth getting.  Any Peanuts fan should keep an eye out for this title when it goes on sale.