Tivola Publishing is a new name to me but I think almost every American knows Charlie Brown (created by Charles Schulz), the ever dependable sidekick Snoopy (aka the Red Baron), the great football holder and shrink Lucy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang. 

I sort of figured that anything licensed by the Schulz family would be top drawer so I enlisted my eager assistants, the grand daughters. 

The game is rated "E" for everyone and the educational games are for people from 4 to Adult - young adult that like to have fun, that is. 

The bad news first - it took right at 10 minutes to load from the CD which is close to an eternity when you have an 8 year old sitting next to you wanting to play the game. The 38 MB it took to load the game so we didn't have to use the CD was a good idea except you still needed to load the CD before it would start. 

That is the only negative comment I have to make; from here on I will praise the game and explain why the girls liked it as I did. 

There are a multitude of choices to make as you attempt to help Schroeder find his blanket that he left with Charlie Brown for safekeeping. We all know just how much Schroeder depends upon the blanket for safety, security, snapping flies, and many other absolutely necessary activities including annoying Lucy. In the course of searching and (hopefully) finding the blanket the player starts by selecting either English or German as the games language and then decides to play as either Charlie Brown or as Lucy. This choice influences many different aspects of the games within the game. 

The girls chose Lucy and we started the game with the setting of the stage for what is to come. We move to Charlie's bedroom as Schroeder explains the problem and Charlie gives his advice. After some more scene setting the game begins in earnest. The figure below shows Lucy in the living room and the bottom of the screen contains the boxes for changing the language, increasing/decreasing the sound volume, eliminating music, pausing the game, going to the other games within the overall game, storing the objects you win or find that you'll need later, the Snoopy meter and ending the game. 

The Snoopy meter reflects his overall happiness and shows when he needs food or water. Keep him happy or else you will not do well in the game. 

Searching rooms finds clues and objects needed to eventually find the blanket and also lets you play some of the nine different games contained within the basic scenario. The games are: Catch the Beagle (clicking on Snoopy as he moves around rapidly), The Great Houndini which requires you to reassemble Peppermint Patty, The Search the book game to find the right book to help keep moving, Bus Ride which is a maze type game, The Training Game which has some tricky math problems to solve, The Drawing Game to help relax your brain and you can print them out and color them later if you wish, the Music game which requires you to find the flying notes that make up the melody, the Supermarket game which is an obstacle type game and the Flying Game which helps get Woodstock to safety. 

A lot of fun and a lot of learning for the kids and they won't mind learning things due to the music and the dialog of the characters. 

Spend the $19.99 for this game at tivola.com and be happy! There is enough to keep the kids going for quite a while and you can even try your hand at it when they're not around. WARNING - they will beat you at most games so keep your ego intact.