Where's the Blanket? It's a "Good" Buy, Charlie Brown!

I have to admit my love for Peanuts, especially Snoopy. When I hear there's new software or anything, I have to have it. The only unfortunate thing was not being able to find it where I live (Toronto, Canada) and asked my American friend to buy it for me. You're never too old to play, the box says it's good between the ages of 4-102! It also contains a demo disk for you to see what other types of software is out there.

The CD is good on a PC with at least 166Mhz or a Mac-OS from 8.1, or Power PC. The minimum requirements being 32 Megs of RAM, 40 Megs of free disk space, and a 4x speed CD-Rom drive. You can use it straight off the disk itself, but it runs really hot and it gives you an error message halfway through. Also, you will have to click after each scene in order to continue. I suggest you install it, and then un-install it when you're done, if you really need the disk space. My PC has a lot of Gigabytes worth of space, so there's no problem for me to keep it on if I want to. It also requires at least Windows 95 to run.

The story of this game is Linus' blanket-hating Grandma is coming to visit and needs to hide his blanket. Charlie Brown offers to hold it for him until she leaves, and Linus agrees. Soon after, it disappears and it has to be found before Linus wants it back. So the search begins.

You can search as Charlie Brown or Lucy with the help of Snoopy. There's a choice between playing in English or in German. You can also choose what type of Snoopy you want. This is to identify which is yours if you choose to exit and save the game to play at a later time. Even though it's only a one-player game, others can play at their leisure by choosing a Snoopy that hasn't been used. You can get right back to where you left off.

Before you start the search, the character you have chosen whether it's Charlie Brown or Lucy, will speak. They will also tell you how to save the game, control the volume, music, etc. They will speak before each scene or entering a room. They also give hints of what to do in the future. After they speak, you can move the mouse and try to find objects to click on, or rooms to go into. The words they use are not difficult for young children to understand.

The objects you're able to drag and collect into the drawer are meant for Snoopy to use. I don't remember if that's said or not, and it may not be obvious. The other thing that may not be obvious are objects that Snoopy can use to keep his Snoopy meter on full. This is important in order for him to keep helping you search. You don't just feed him, he can also get his back scratched or his face fanned if he gets too hot. You really have to click on everything you can find and click on the characters to see if they say or do anything useful.

I really enjoyed playing this though because I am into discovering things. Not only that but there puzzles, mazes and even colouring within this game so it isn't just about looking for clues. Each game has an easy or more difficult mode which is shown by a small or big Snoopy and is explained by Charlie Brown or Lucy. If you happen to have missed anything or want to hear it again, there's a help option and the character will repeat the explanation. There's no real booklet for this game, just a folded two-pages inside the CD case which tells you the basics of the game. It isn't a hard game, so it really doesn't need that much explaining anyway.

Overall, a very satisfying game. It may be simple, but I like that. I'm not one for those one person point of view games where you go from room to room because I get dizzy or motion sickness from those types. There's no violence or anything scary to it, it's just fun to follow the leads and play the little games along the way.