It's The Big Game, Charlie Brown should have been titled It's The Big Let Down Charlie Brown. Let me frame that statement properly so that you understand why this game is a personal letdown. I am one of those crazy Peanuts aficionados. I have tons of Peanuts junk laying everywhere - bobbleheads, VHS movies, DVDs, stuffed animals, porcelain figurines, old toys, etc. So with that in mind I expected a bit more from this game. And to be perfectly fair, this game isn't geared towards my age group at all -- it is meant for seven year olds, or first graders. So as a game designed for first graders, It's The Big Game, Charlie Brown gets the job done, but I can't help but feel that the developers could have done a whole lot more with the amazing franchise they'd been given.
The game has basically two modes - an adventure mode where you go around looking for players for your baseball team and a mode that simply lets you play baseball for a handful of innings. Before we get into the whole baseball game aspect of It's The Big Game, Charlie Brown, let's talk about the adventure leg of the journey. The game is completely 2D and in old school adventure game fashion you move left, right, up or down to go to the next frames. There is not a lot of muscle to this part of the game because there are very few things to do. There are some cute animations that you can activate to make certain characters do things, like in one scene where clicking on a basketball activates a snoopy playing basketball animation, but these moments are barely interactive (cute and fun, yes).
As you go around to these different locales in good old Chuck's neighborhood you'll meet the entire Peanuts gang and try to get them to join the team for the season's first big game. One of my biggest problems with the game, which just can't be helped, is that the voice acting doesn't match any animated Peanuts piece I have ever seen. It is very hard for me to get past this new cast of kids voicing the Peanuts gang. It's not anyone's fault, really, but it's sort of like watching an old episode of Scooby Doo and then watching the new ones - things have changed because people grow up or move on.
If you've never seen any of the Peanuts specials or the TV show, then you probably won't mind the voice acting at all, but it bothered me a lot. It reminded me of the first time I sat on Santa's lap and realized that the funny smelling man under that red suit was not Santa at all but an imposter.
As I've already said, there's not a lot to do in this game. The adventure part of the game holds your hand and gives you very little to do in each area. So basically you'll simply talk to the gang to get them to join or perhaps perform some small and mundane task they require, but it's all pretty easy peasy.
One of my biggest gripes with the game is the actual baseball game, which just too simple. Seven year olds may have won't have a hard time batting or playing the field because the controls are all mouseclicks . The baseball game looks decent enough, but it's not something you couldn't find online as a Flash game. If you can forgive the simplicity of the baseball being offered here, then you may have some fun with it.
I don't want to give the impression that It's The Big Game, Charlie Brown is a completely worthless experience. It is geared for youngsters and youngsters will enjoy being able to interact with the Peanuts gang and playing a baseball game against some of Charles M Shultz' generic extras. I have some personal issues with the voice acting and the low level of interactivity, but I do have to give Viva credit for the capturing the characters and the comic strip environments accurately. At the end of the day, I have no problems recommending this for kids ages 7 and up, but for oldster Peanuts fans like myself, this game is about as thrilling as watching Pig Pen's dust cloud..
