Tag: Beeline »

Peanuts has got to be one of, if not the, most recognizable American cartoon strips in history. Not just the comic, either. Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown is one of those holiday classics that just has to be seen. It's a staple of every Santa-loving child's holiday. Suffice it to say, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of those not-quite troublemakers are a huge part of American culture.

They've been around a long time. Long enough, in fact, to have spawned more than a couple video game iterations. Now it's time for the unnaturally bald man-child and his friends to try their luck on iOS with Snoopy's Street Fair. I'll admit I was somewhat surprised and confused by the odd choice of gameplay style at first, but after only a few seconds of that trailer down there I've completely changed my tune. I'm legitimately excited for this game.

Peanuts and a freemium "city" building game... Who in their right mind would have ever thought that would work? Players will help Charlie Brown and friends (21 characters in all) set up a street fair in the neighborhood, with all manner of stalls and other street fair things. Notable characters such as Linus, Lucy and more can also be recruited to run the kiosks and attractions. Of course, these all earn money that can be used to acquire better stuff, etc...

An interesting spin to the whole idea is Snoopy himself. The mischievous beagle will wander the neighborhood and cause all manner of light-hearted trouble. Depending on his current costume (such as the Beagle Scout) he'll interact with the environment in various ways, and each of the three outfits unlocks a unique themed minigame.

There are also a bunch of collectibles to keep players doing what they do best while steadily earning income to build more structures to earn more income and so on. With over two-dozen trading cards and 45 original cartoon strips, well it's got plenty of carrots to dangle. And through it all, the classic Peanuts style shines through with artwork faithful to Charles M. Schulz’s illustrations and "official voice talent." Official voice talent (!).

Snoopy's Street Fair will be setting up shop in the App Store November 17th. I'm calling it right now: unless there's hypothetically some kind of insane bug (which I doubt), this game is going to do very, very well. Because everyone loves Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts troupe.