|
| By Brad Cook Good grief! Charles Schulz may no longer be with us, but his signature creation, the comic strip Peanuts, still lives in the hearts of millions. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and the rest of the gang are on hand to solve a mystery in Tivola Publishing’s Peanuts: Where’s the Blanket, Charlie Brown?. |
|
 The whole gang is poised to meet the next generation of young fans. |
Kids can choose to play as lovable loser Charlie Brown or hard-headed tomboy Lucy as they search for Linus’s missing security blanket, which all Peanuts fans know he can’t live without. Like all of Tivola’s games, you can play Where’s the Blanket? in the Classic mode in Mac OS X or in Mac OS 9.
“Tivola’s goal is to engage kids through interactive gameplay and to smuggle in the learning so they don’t feel it,” explains Tivola president Eve Seber. That’s why she believes it was “a natural match of characters and creative talent” when Creative Associates and United Media approached Tivola to create a Peanuts game that would impart valuable lessons while letting kids have fun.
 |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|||
 |
|||||
She adds that Tivola supports Macintosh versions of its games because “our goal is to make sure that our software is as successful as possible. Kids can play these games at school and bring them home as well.”
Peanuts: Charlie Brown on your desktop.
Peanuts, Meet the Next Generation
The Peanuts characters have been around since the 1950s, and international project manager Anja Grothe explains that Where’s the Blanket is “a great opportunity to ‘invite’ them to join today’s multimedia playroom and let them ‘meet’ the next generation [of kids].” (Want to know about the history of Schulz’s characters? See “50 Years of Peanuts” on page two.)
The game takes place in various environments that will be familiar to Peanuts fans, such as the Browns’ house, the red brick wall where the characters often meet to chat, summer camp (which has been updated to computer camp), and Schroeder’s piano room. Kids can click on hotspots in each room and discover hidden items, other clues that will eventually lead them to Linus’s blanket, or even such enjoyable mini games as Steer the Bus With Snoopy. The game is different depending on your choice of protagonist — Lucy or Charlie Brown — so kids can play it more than once and have a different experience each time.
Of course, what would a Peanuts game be without Snoopy? He helps out while dressed in various disguises, such as a detective or The Great Houdini, and Grothe says that he “often adds an unexpected, humorous twist to things. He’s definitely most kids’ favorite.”
Max and the Pirates:
The scavenger hunt begins.
The scavenger hunt begins.
Entertaining Intellectual Stimulation
Tivola was founded by CEO Carlo Voelker seven years ago. Voelker says: “My vision when I founded Tivola was to create a multimedia company that provides entertainment with intellectual stimulation. Our goal is to grow with the child from their toddler years, when they’re just learning to use a mouse, through adulthood.”
To that end, Tivola publishes a variety of games aimed at both grade school kids and older children who have outgrown “that kids’ stuff”:
Physicus is a puzzle game that employs a look and feel reminiscent of the Myst series combined with subject matter that covers the sciences. The action takes place after a meteorite has struck the Earth, causing it to stop rotating. Half the planet slowly becomes a frozen wasteland while the other half turns scorching hot.
Your goal is to learn enough about electricity, mechanics, optics, and other sciences in time to get the Earth rotating again and save it from eventual annihilation.
 |
|
 |
|
Physicus: Save the planet.
Bioscopia is the sequel to Physicus. It requires you to employ your knowledge of human biology, cell biology, genetics, and other sciences to save a researcher who is trapped in an abandoned biological research station located in the world of Bioscopia. Robots have been alerted to her presence and will kill her with poisonous gas unless you can solve the puzzles that will unlock the doors she’s hidden behind. Seber says it offers “thrilling adventure combined with science.”
Bioscopia: Battle evil through science.
Answer This…Whales and Dolphins is part of a new series of trivia question games. This quiz show game offers three levels of difficulty, an Internet high score competition, and over 600 questions about whales and dolphins.
Award-Winning, Universal Appeal
3 Great Adventures with Max stars a lovable dog named Max, whom Seber says “is the reason I fell in love with Tivola. His appeal is universal.” This title offers three adventures aimed at grade school kids: Max and the Secret Formula (locate the items missing from Uncle Pong’s secret formula and keep the leaning tower of Auntie Lisa from collapsing); Max and the Pirates (roam the ship Santa Loosetooth to gather the missing parts of a pirate machine); Max and the Haunted Castle (help Willie, the castle ghost, find his favorite food and restore his powers).
Seber points out that you can hear the same sentence in English, French, Spanish, or German with a click of your mouse during the game, which is great for reinforcing language fundamentals in small children, who tend to grasp new languages easily.
Alphabet: Play With ABCs: Play with the pretty pictures.
Alphabet: Play With ABCs “is truly high art come multimedia,” says Seber. “While it offers the ABCs to the little ones, it also stuns, thrills, and delights adults.” This award-winning game focuses on the 26 letters in the alphabet and allows you to play with each one, seeing how they’re spoken and written in three levels of gameplay.
Want to offer your kids some after-school fun while smuggling in a little extra-curricular learning? The check out the latest games from Tivola.
If you liked these games, check out:
Hulabee Entertainment Infogrames Kids Games Knowledge Adventure Games More Kids Games
Gain a little insight into the Peanuts comic strip.  
|