| Snoopy's Street Fair | |
|---|---|
 Title screen artwork | |
| Developer | Beeline Interactive |
| Publisher | Capcom |
| Composer | Vince Guaraldi (archived compositions) |
| Series | Peanuts |
| Platforms | iOS,Android |
| Release | |
| Genres | |
Snoopy's Street Fair is a discontinued mobilecity-building andsimulation video game developed by Beeline Interactive and published byCapcom, based on thePeanuts franchise. In the game, the player builds astreet fair to save money forCharlie Brown's baseball team. At set intervals, stalls run byPeanuts characters and other attractions will generate in-game currency, which can be used to further expand and decorate the fair. Developed by Beeline from London, the game was part of a line of licensed games by Capcom during a profitable period in the mobile game market.
Snoopy's Street Fair was released toiOS devices on November 16, 2011, following an early release in Canada for gameplay and bug testing. AnAndroid version was released in Japan in 2012 and elsewhere in 2013. The game received mixed to average reviews from critics; several praised the art style and possible nostalgia factor forPeanuts fans, but found issue with its gameplay loop and integration ofmicrotransactions. Commercially,Snoopy's Street Fair had been downloaded over five million times by July 2012. Beeline developed two follow-upPeanuts games,Snoopy's Candy Town (2013) andSnoopy's Sugar Drop (2014). By 2019,Snoopy's Street Fair had been discontinued internationally.
Snoopy's Street Fair is a video game adaptation of thePeanuts comic strips created byCharles M. Schulz. It uses the same animation style as otherPeanuts media, the franchise's voice cast at the time of release, and the original soundtracks byVince Guaraldi.[1] At the start of the game,Charlie Brown's team is invited to aLittle League Baseball tournament in New York City, but they are unable to afford new costumes. At the suggestion ofPeppermint Patty, thePeanuts cast start astreet fair to raise funds.[2]
Snoopy's Street Fair is asimulation andcity-building game[3] in which the player manages the street fair.Peanuts characters operate different stalls and booths, which make income at a set interval; other sources of revenue include unmanned attractions, such as gumball machines.[4] When the allotted time has passed, the player can manually collect Snoopy Coins (the primary in-game currency) andexperience points (XP) from the attractions.[2][4] A more lucrative currency, Snoopy Dollars, can be obtained by leveling up the street fair through collecting XP, which would also unlock more attractions in the shop.[5] Outside stalls, XP is also collected through clearingmissions from a to-do list, among other means.[5] Although the game wasfree-to-play, it operated on afreemium model; the player could use real-world money (ranging from £2.99 to £69.99) viamicrotransactions to purchase Snoopy Coins and Dollars, which particularly off-set the slow process to obtain the latter.[2][5]
At the start of the game, the street fair consists of only alemonade stand, but Snoopy Coins and Dollars are used to purchase new stalls and decorations for the neighborhood.[2][4] The player can also upgrade stalls and purchase expansions for more land.[5] Some attractions featureminigames, including juicing lemons, roasting marshmellows, and painting; XP is rewarded for playing.[1][5] In Snoopy Snaps, a mode unlocked by purchasing aphotobooth, the player could take pictures with overlays ofPeanuts characters using their device's camera.[1][4] Additionalcollectibles include outfits for Snoopy,baseball cards depicting the characters, and previously syndicatedPeanuts comic strips, which could be read within the app.[1] The game featured integration with friend lists throughApple Game Center andFacebook; the player could visit others' fairs and send them gifts, or share pictures from Snoopy Snaps andPeanuts-themed postcards via Facebook and e-mail.[1][4]
Snoopy's Street Fair was developed by Beeline Interactive from their studio in London.[6] Beeline was established as a subsidiary of Japanese game developerCapcom around April 2011 to take over their focus on original mobile games, which was becoming an increasingly profitable market.[7]Snoopy's Street Fair continued Capcom's focus on licensed games, following titles based upon franchises such asWhere's Waldo?,Mr. Bill,American Gladiators, andThe Smurfs.[8] One of theirSmurfs titles,Smurfs' Village (2010), was a commercial hit that ranked as a top-grossing app in 55 countries, but attracted controversy for its use of microtransactions in a game marketed towards kids. Stuart Dredge forThe Guardian wrote, "Capcom will be hoping for less headlines with its latest freemium game, based on thePeanuts cartoons."[9]
On August 3, 2011, it was reported that Capcom had acquired a license forPeanuts and would release a game based upon the franchise that fall.[10] Beeline formally announced its details and title,Snoopy's Street Fair, on September 12, 2011.[8] The game launched foriOS devices in Canada on November 3, 2011, a few weeks ahead of the full release to allow Beeline time for adjusting gameplay issues and bugs.[6] The general release came on November 18,[11] followed by the game's release in Japan asSnoopy Street[nb 1] on December 9.[12]Android versions were first released in Japan on July 19, 2012,[13] followed by the Western versions on May 2, 2013.[14]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 71/100[15] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| AppSpy | 3/5[16] |
| Common Sense Media |   [17] |
| Gamezebo |  [1] |
| Pocket Gamer | [4] |
| Slide to Play | 3/4[2] |
| TouchArcade | [18] |
Snoopy's Street Fair received "mixed or average" reviews from video game critics according to aggregatorMetacritic, which calculated a normalized score of 71/100 based upon 7 reviews.[15]
Multiple critics found that the callbacks and similarities to olderPeanuts media created a nostalgia factor that could appeal to players familiar with the franchise.[nb 2] Writing inGamezebo, Jim Squires noted the game's animation, voice cast, and its usage of Guaraldi's soundtracks. He thoughtSnoopy's Street Fair finds identity in its "charming details", such as its incidental dialogue from characters includingFrieda and Charlie Brown, who deliver "vain questions" and "poetic lines", respectively.[1]Famitsu App's Angel Harada, who rankedStreet Fair as one of his favorite mobile games of 2011 despite its late-year release,[20] thought that watching characters walk around the fair was enjoyable in its own right due to their animations in the game's "cute" art style.[21]
Despite favorable comments on the presentation, several reviewers had issues with the game's integration of micropayments.[nb 3] Some felt that a slow gameplay loop (such as in collecting Snoopy Dollars, as well as the limited use of Snoopy Coins in comparison) strongly encouraged players to spend real-word money.[nb 4] Chris Morris for the parental advice organizationCommon Sense Media described its freemium strategy as that of a "'velvet rope' app"–the game is marketable to younger audiences because of its use of a recognizableintellectual property and simple gameplay, but encourages paid purchases through the amount of time required to unlock certain items.[17] In her review forSlide to Play, Nadia Oxford sympathized that the developer would need micropayments to turn a profit, but foundSnoopy's Street Fair's presentation as a free-to-play game disillusioning when many items of interests, such as the stalls with favoritePeanuts characters, are locked behind Snoopy Dollars.[2]
Some reviewers also critiqued the gameplay.TouchArcade's Nissa Campbell consideredgrinding inSnoopy's Street Fair "too brainless" in comparison to other freemium games and described the gameplay loop: "You can tap each of the stalls and features of your fair once in a while – 30 seconds, 24 hours, or somewhere in between. [...] The grinding is oversimplified, as is the decorating. It's all just rather bland."[18]Pocket Gamer's Anthony Usher described it as "a case of tap, wait, tap, wait" that is best played in short intervals.[4] Although Usher found none of the minigames interesting, he called Snoopy Snap one of "several nifty features for fans of Charlie's pet beagle";[4] Squires (Gamezebo) similarly considered Snoopy Snap one of the game's "neatest little features" but also found the minigames enjoyable.[1]
On the UKApp Store charts for the week ending November 20, 2011,Snoopy's Street Fair was the eighth most-downloaded free app oniPads. It was the second-highest video game on the list that week, behind onlyBlood & Glory.[22] At the start of 2012,PocketGamer.biz ranked Capcom Mobile (including its profits from Beeline) as the year's thirteenth most-successful mobile developer due toSmurfs' Village, while writing that other titles includingSnoopy's Street Fair failed to "catch the public's imagination".[23] Regardless, the game had received five million downloads by July 2012 and was called another "iOS hit" for the company byVG247.[24] Capcom's financial reports describedSnoopy's Street Fair as a steady income source with favorable performance in Japan and Asia.[25][26]
A sequel toSnoopy's Street Fair,Snoopy's Candy Town, was developed by Beeline and released to mobile on December 18, 2013.[27] InCandy Town, the player helps manage a candy factory to raise funds for Charlie Brown's campaign forclass president. To fulfill candy orders from customers, the player commandsWoodstocks to order groceries and produce sweets.Strategy elements are introduced as the player can upgrade machinery, plan delivery routes, and manage their ingredient storage.[3][28] A third BeelinePeanuts title, amatch-three game titledSnoopy's Sugar Drop, was released on May 15, 2014. The player helps Snoopy search for his missing sister,Belle, by clearing match-three puzzles in a similar vein toCandy Crush.[29][30]
At some point,Snoopy's Street Fair was discontinued in the West, but it stayed in service longer in Japan, where it closed on September 26, 2019.[31] Other Capcom-developedPeanuts titles were also discontinued, but some remained active in Japan.[32] Beeline had been merged with other Capcom studios to form Capcom Mobile in 2016, following a decline in profits within the mobile game market.[33] Capcom moved priorities away fromcasual mobile games, but announcedSnoopy Puzzle Journey — a tile-matching game — for release in March 2020, although it received little marketing. Based onPuzzle Journey's mistranslated website and absence from Capcom's recent financial report,PocketGamer.biz's Ric Cowley presumed its launch was a test on the viability of the Western mobile market.[32]
