It’s The Big Game Charlie Brown (**** out of four) is a fun romp for children and any Charlie Brown or Peanuts fan. The game centers on Charlie Brown’s eternal quest to manage a winning baseball team. But first you have to help Charlie Brown field a team. You’ll be guiding him along as he visits his favorite prospects: Lucy, Linus, Snoopy and others from the Peanuts gang, trying to convince them to join the team. This is not easy, since it involves solving a puzzle and a series of mini-games.

The Peanuts gang members are sort of fussy, so Charlie Brown has to go about recruiting them in just the right order, with only certain other gang members on the screen with other characters at any one time. Once you (as Charlie Brown) have that puzzle all figured out, the gang members each impose their own mini-game that you must play and win to convince that character to join up.

Mini-games include Schroeder’s Music Game, where you must repeat a series of notes played on Schroeder’s on-screen keyboard. Play the notes to his satisfaction, and he may join up. If you can’t help Charlie Brown this time, come back later to try again.

Pig-Pen’s Clockwork Game has Charlie Brown fixing a clock by inserting cogs of various sizes in such a way as to get the last cog to turn in the desired direction. Then Lucy imposes a Trivia Game testing Charlie Brown’s knowledge of the Peanuts characters. And Charlie Brown must help Peppermint Patty sort her sports equipment by adjusting inclined planes to guide the equipment in the right direction.

Each character also has Charlie Brown playing mini-baseball games that help you become familiar with the different elements of baseball -- batting, pitching, base running, fielding and Charlie Brown’s nemesis, managing. You play each character’s mini-baseball game ‘til you succeed, and then the character agrees to join the team for the Big Game.

The game plays easily, and you can choose to play at three levels of difficulty. The cartoon characters are colorful and the neighborhood Charlie Brown explores is fun to see. And how will Charlie Brown and his team do in the big game? Play it and find out. Good Grief!

Genesis Rising (*** out of four) is a real time strategy game set millenniums into a future, where the expanding human race has taken a religious and even quasi-divine stance in their militaristic quest to dominate the known Universe. But there remains one last bastian to conquer, the "Heart of the Universe." In this quest of domination you take on the role of the commander of a fleet of ships, directing them where to go and what to do as you encounter alien races, some friendly and some not so friendly. Your mission is to uncover the location and purpose of this Universal Heart.

The ships you command are organic and alive with the ability of a mother ship to grow other ships. This requires blood that you can get from the Station or harvest from the carcass of enemy ships that you have destroyed. Being organic, the ship’s capabilities depend on the type and quantity of genes that have been inserted into the ship. You can change the capabilities of your ship(s) by inserting new genes. Some genes will morph the ship into a long-range fighter; other genes will grow short-range weapons, and so on.

Genes are stored in the Gene Laboratory’s gene bank, ready for use. New genes can be produced in the Gene Laboratory or harvested from enemy ships. As part of the strategy in the game, you’ll need to devote some time to the production, harvesting and use of genes. Plan well and you’re more likely to succeed. You’ll also have to exercise a certain amount of diplomacy and trade in the game, since from time to time you need to call on your allies for help.

As in many strategy games, Genesis Rising includes many facets and features that will take some time to master. There are many action sequences, with your ships firing at enemy ships in a somewhat confusing battle array while you direct one, two or a fleet of ships toward the ultimate goal. You do have to keep track of the health of your ships.

The beauty of the game, however, lies in its graphics, with lushly depicted space scenes and stunning organic ships. But as with many graphically intensive games, you have to pay attention to the system requirements. The game does support multiplayer LAN or Internet play.

A series of three tutorials help familiarize you with the basics of ship and camera controls, genes and their uses, the ever-important Station and its controls and fleet controls. Beyond that, it’s up to you.