Curse you Red Baron!

Snoopy Flying Ace is a downloadable game from available on Xbox Live Arcade. It stars Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang, but they aren’t attempting to kick (and miss) footballs or charging five cents for therapy this time around. Here they are doing combat in an all out WWII dogfight!

Of course, the playable characters are who you would expect, and include the likes of Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Sally, Pigpen, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and Rerun, to name a few. All of the characters have a very humorous WWI or WWII take in appearance. Lucy, for example, wears a kaizer helmet, whereas Marcie’s glasses are now replaced by a full-on helmet and goggles combo. Snoopy of course has his classic WWI flying ace getup. It should also be noted that WWI Snoopy’s archenemy, the Red Baron, is also a playable character. Of course, his face is masked behind a scarf and goggles, as it should be as he was always an unseen character. You can even play as your Xbox Avatar! Though personally, when you have the option to play as Snoopy, I don’t see why I would choose an Xbox Avatar…

Anyway, you can also choose a bevy of different planes, which have varying scores in categories like speed, handling and life. These, of course, affect how fast your plane is, how well it controls and how many hits it can take before you’re blown to smithereens.

You can also choose different special weapons. You are allowed two different weapons at a time (excluding the machine gun, which is always present), and you can switch weapons either after every time you lose a life, and after every match. The weapons are varied and fun, and some even require you to be more strategic with how you use it (like the EMP, which is best used when an enemy plane is coming from behind or flying at you fast, so they end up regretting messing with you). None of the weapons really have a Peanuts feel to them, which I think counteracts the whole Peanuts theme of the game, but they are fun nonetheless. Though it should be noted that Snoopy’s friend Woodstock, with pistols in hand, will become something of an extra gun on your plane if you can shoot down four planes without being shot down yourself.

The environments of the game have a unique steampunk take on WWII. Most of the settings feel very European, but expect to see a few mechanical contraptions littered about the place. Often times, these environments will prove just as deadly as enemy planes. I admit it can get a little frustrating when the level itself ends up shooting you down instead of a player, but it can make for some interesting scenarios.

The game includes a single player mode, but chances are you’ll want to be spending all your playtime on Xbox Live. The online modes include dogfight, team dogfight, capture the flag, and free-for-all and team versions of “dog pile mode,” in which the player (or team) who holds onto a dog bone the longest is declared the winner. I’m going to sound unoriginal, but I think my favorite mode is the simple team dogfight.

Things can get hectic on the battlefield, sometimes so hectic you may lose track of yourself. But for the most part the game provides some very fast-paced and exciting flying combat.

Snoopy Flying Ace is a very fun game that is a great purchase on Xbox Live Arcade. It has it’s problems (again, you can get lost in all the action, and the aforementioned level dangers may get the better of you more often than players), but as a whole Snoopy Flying Ace is a very fun game that provides some very fun dogfighting. And it has Snoopy, so it’s an instant win.

“Curse you Red Baron!”

(1 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10, rated)

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