Sweet news! Beeline has just released another game, Snoopy's Candy Town, which features the whole Peanuts gang in their delicious-looking quest to run a candy factory.
Sweet-tooths are sure to love the smooth and vibrant graphics that stay true to the comics, much like its predecessor, Snoopy's Street Fair. What's always been fun about these freemium games is they have a life of their own _ in Candy Town's case, sitting back to watch Woodstock and his bird friends run the factory's colourful machines is a joy in itself.
Your job is to efficiently fulfill candy orders from kids around the block. With the golden coins and Snoopy dollars you earn, you can bling up the surrounding Americana-style neighbourhood.
However, it's not as mindless as Street Fair, in which coins are passively collected and used toward the purchase of ridiculously cute nonsense with which to fill your neighbourhood.
Candy Town sometimes feels menial, because you have to tap every single thing, from sending out your delivery birds to picking up groceries (not to mention unloading the cart) to machine operation and picking up every single piece of candy produced. Then there's doling out the merchandise to each customer, whose orders are sometimes all over the place. Candy Town does require some strategic planning _ you maximise your machines, plan delivery routes and ensure you have enough storage for all your items.
The game puts you in a weird state of limbo, as it's not completely at your own pace _ there's a certain amount of in-game, time-specific occurrences, meaning you might not have anything to tap in to if you're waiting for the bus with five minutes to kill. The time gaps _ it takes 30 minutes to make one brownie_ make Candy Town the sort of game you only check back on every two hours or so. It's a weird pressure, though, since the candy doesn't spoil and the customers don't go away, even if you've made them wait, unlike in Zombie Cafe.
The absurd time gaps and slowly earned coins may be frustrating at times, but Charlie Brown's neighbourhood is always fun to decorate. It's a perfect divergence from the other Snoopy instalments. If you are on the Peanuts team, this is one game you definitely shouldn't miss.
Snoopy's Candy Town is available free for iPhone and iPad users from the iOS app store.
