Good Grief! The Peanuts gang is back this holiday season with a brand new interactive and remastered 40th Anniversary edition of their classic adventure.
This digital book offers three different modes for readers to enjoy: Autoplay, Read to Me, and Read to Myself. Complete with dialogue, music, and sound effects from the original animated special from 1973. Heck, the story itself is even narrated by Linus van Pelt himself, Stephen Shea! On top of that, every page is interactive in some way and incorporates touch, tilt, or slide functions to pull you into the story.
It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown has users hanging out with Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang as they search for the Great Pumpkin. Users are also able to create their own Peanuts character that can hang out with Charlie Brown at a Halloween party or while trick-or-treating. There are many costume combinations available for users as they create their character, and when they're done they can also play other mini-games such as carving their own pumpkin or playing a song on Schroeder's piano.
This week at 148Apps.com, writer Rob Rich previewed the upcoming freemium Charlie Brown game, Snoopy's Street Fair. Rich was pleasantly elated by the game's trailer, as he writes, "(The Peanuts characters have) 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."
Kid-friendly site GiggleApps plumbed the depths of the mysterious with its review of Boquitas: The Hunt for the Chupacabras. Writer Amy Solomon comments, "There is so much I really appreciate about this app. It is wonderfully colorful, with a bright and lively palette that I greatly enjoy. The look of these illustrations is highly stylized, reminiscent to me of the great, iconic cartoons created by Genndy Tartakovsky, and include clever interactions that add richness, whit and whimsy to this pitch-perfect storybook application. The art direction here is perfectly realized as the reader’s attention is focused in all the right places to further this story along, creating nice moments of suspense and great humor."
Hunt for more chupacabras and read the full review on GiggleApps.com.
Finally, on 148Apps.biz, Rob LeFebvre got some initial impressions of iCloud from a developer's perspective when he spoke to Dave Howell of Avatron Software. LeFebvre writes, "Howell suggests that iCloud is now allowing developers like him to reduce costs, and use iCloud to store information for app usage, including Key Value Storage. This allows developers to leverage the free nature of the basic iCloud service instead of incurring server costs, or using higher priced options like Dropbox and Box.net."
With Halloween coming up, don't forget to check 148Apps often for great weekend and holiday sales on the apps and games you love and want. Or, just Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news, contests and more delivered right to you.
See you next week after your early week candy binge!
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.
:: DELIGHTFUL STORYTELLING :: Read Review »
