When we first heard that Snoopy was getting another video-game adventure – this time as detective-beagle in Snoopy & The Great Mystery Club – we felt some cautious optimism. The premise is undeniably charming: Snoopy dons several personas (pirate, gardener, detective, and more), builds a team of the Peanuts gang (Peppermint Patty, Lucy, Marcie, Schroeder, Franklin, etc.), and sets about solving a series of small-town mysteries in the familiar Peanuts neighbourhood. The pitch clearly leans hard into nostalgia and family-friendly fun, and the game mostly delivers on that promise – although not without compromise.
Visually and aurally, the game hits home the Peanuts vibe. The presentation is warm, the character models feel faithful to the Schulz aesthetic, and the voices (yes, full voice acting is present) bring a genuine smile. On today’s tech, we now have a Snoopy game that looks almost exactly how a Peanuts game should look, and the soundtrack and sound design capture that cozy, Saturday-morning-cartoon mood. If you want Snoopy in a world you recognise, you’ll feel right at home here.
That said, the narrative and premise are built with a light hand: the “mysteries” are mostly small-scale (missing kites, snack thefts, odd happenings around town) and the stakes remain low. That’s fine – it’s clearly pitched to a younger audience – but older or more seasoned players will likely notice the absence of tension or real investigative heft. You don’t so much deduce as you fetch and deliver to solve these cases, and the detective moments are more gloss than depth. The story works as a breezy stroll through the Peanuts world, but it doesn’t dig into deeper mystery-game territory.
Gameplay mechanics reflect that mellow ambition. You explore a modest open world (though it’s more like a hub of familiar locations rather than a vast landscape), talk to characters, pick up items, switch Snoopy’s outfit to gain a certain ability (like a magnifying glass, shovel or leaf blower), and chase down the chapter’s case. The outfit-swap mechanic is clever in concept and offers some variety, but the execution feels a bit clunky: the frequent switching can get tedious, especially when the tasks themselves are fairly simple. The mini-games (which include football kicking, soap-box racing and a Red Baron flying sequence) help break things up, but again, their simplicity means they fade quickly for older players.
Controls and pacing follow suit: the game is accessible and relaxed, making it great for kids or newcomers to gaming. But that very ease means there’s little in the way of challenge or refinement. The world sometimes feels empty: you might wander into a room with one or two NPCs and no real interaction until it’s plot-driven, and we noted some performance hiccups and frame-rate drops here and there. Certainly nothing catastrophic, it’s a reminder that licensed games of this scale may not share the polish of higher-budget titles.
From a visuals standpoint we’re very impressed: the world evokes the familiar Snoopy neighbourhood charm, and the voice-acting and music lean into nostalgic comfort. But from a gameplay perspective, the trade-off for simplicity is real. The fetch-quest loop dominates, the detective conclusion phases are modest at best, and for anyone wanting a brain-teasing mystery or deeper progression, the game may feel thin.
In the end, Snoopy & The Great Mystery Club is a fine offering for what it sets out to do: deliver a sweet, safe, comforting Peanuts-flavoured adventure for younger players or nostalgic fans who simply want to wander the neighbourhood with Snoopy and pals. If you’re looking for something deeper, more challenging, or built for extended replay, this won’t be your peak. But the heart is there, the visuals are pleasant, and for the right audience it ticks the right boxes. For the price and the market, it’s a solid choice – some rough edges, but also lots of genuine charm.
Score: 7.5/10
Press Play Media 