I grew up thinking I was a big fan of Snoopy and the Peanuts gang. Ever since I could remember 90% of my birthday and holiday cards from my mom and dad have been Snoopy-themed. I thought this meant that I showed some kind of interest in Snoopy, the holiday specials, or the comic strips as a kid.

Last year I learned the truth. It’s my mom who loves Snoopy and the Peanuts gang. Snoopy first showed up on the scene right after she was born. It’s because of her love for this dog and his little friends that I have been gaslighted into thinking I was in love with the Peanuts gang — I guess it’s not the worst case of gaslighting by a family member.

I like Snoopy just fine. Snoopy and Woodstock are pretty cute together, it’s Charlie Brown and his smelly friends that I never really cared for. I know some of the names — Lucy, Linus, Peppermint Patty, and the extra smelly kid — but I can’t really match most of the names to their proper faces.

This year we watched some of the holiday specials (It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas) since they were included on Apple TV. We’re still working on a Charlie Brown Christmas puzzle from last year. These are all fine things and I’m happy they exist.

Due to this whole gaslighting thing, I thought I should try out the new Snoopy video game — Snoopy & the Great Mystery Club.

More Than Expected

I initially thought this would be a cute little kids game, and it is that. Still, the more I played Snoopy & the Great Mystery Club the more I realized that it’s more than a kids game — it’s a great RPG (role playing game) trainer for young ones. I can see a kid get into this game and later get into some bigger RPGs — they may grow into fans of future Fallout games, Starfield, Final Fantasy games, and other large-scale RPGs.

In my recent coverage of Dragon Age: The Veilguard I called that game a great starter RPG for gamers wanting to get into the genre — that’s exactly what it was for me. In reality, Snoopy & the Great Mystery Club may even qualify as a pre-starter RPG for kids.

Snoopy & the Great Mystery Club is basically a D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) campaign dressed in a detective’s cloak. The game consists of solving mysteries (quests) with friends (party members). There are even mini games (side quests) sprinkled in between mysteries. There is no combat though, but the menus are full of RPG-like elements — map, inventory, team, and objectives.

Voice & Animation

The art style feels like, what if these 2D characters got warped into a 3D video game. It reminds me a little of the Peanuts (2015) movie, more CGI than hand-drawn.

In the past I have tried out some games based on big cartoons from smaller studios and they usually have limited to no voice over. It’s quite the achievement for Snoopy & the Great Mystery Club to have full-on voice acting, even if they aren’t the same actors used in animation projects.

Snoopy and Peanuts is a big project in the voice acting world, since they originally used real children as the voices for the kids. I would be disappointed if I was left to read the dialogue instead of hearing them performed. Kudos to the team for including real voice over in this game.

I don’t see myself finishing Snoopy & the Great Mystery Club, but I am happy I got to try it out and share my story. If my nephews were younger I might follow through with them. I will however recommend this to my friends with young gamers who are interested in games but not yet old enough for some of the more complicated family games. Who knows, you may have a future RPG player or maker in the works.

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*myVGBC was given a review code for Snoopy & the Great Mystery Club by the publisher.