Snoopy Flying Ace

 Snoopy lopped out to his dog house that morning, it was like any other.  But as he approached the little red structure he soon realized that something was amiss.  He heard the distant whirring of an biplane rotator.  He then knew that the Red Baron had returned and it was his duty to defeat him.

           The above scene has been played out in different ways in many Peanuts cartoons.  The essence of this kind of daydream is played out to the fullest extent in the new game by Smart Bomb called, Snoopy Flying Ace.  The game takes place during an alternate WWI where the Peanuts characters take up all the parts in their battle against the Kaiser(Lucy) and the Red Baron.  The game is an action thrilled ride that can be easily compared to games like Crimson Skies.  But this time the whole cast of Peanuts has come a long for the ride.

          The best part of the game are the incredible controls.  The ability to control your plane and not only shoot your machine guns but also deploying special equipment that consists of everything from homing missiles to aerial mines to an EMP.  The controls are exacting and with some practice plenty of fun aerial maneuvers can be pulled off and if your interested in not getting shot down; your going to have to eventually employ some creativity to not only defeat Lucy but the Red Baron.

           The game allows you to play through a decent size single player campaign and then go into a multiplayer modes where you can play everything from a free for all deathmatch to more team based modes.  All standard fair, but this IS an XBOX LIVE ARCADE GAME after all, so we cannot expect something completely different or more complicated.  The game seems to have a multiplayer focus as all the pilots and weapons are available in the multiplayer and new weapons must be unlocked in the single player.   The multiplayer is a little frantic but still very fun and will SO MANY competing pilots in the air, the player must use all their creativity not to be shot down over and over.  

            During the single player campaign the player will be asked to dogfight with other enemy planes, defend different objectives, run races, and man turrets on both vessels and buildings.  During the single player, I never felt like I was doing too much of the same thing over and over.  I really enjoyed the way they decided to spread out the different types of play.      
 

 Just as a final note before I say how much I want all of you to at the very least try Snoopy Flying Ace.  I have to say that the achievements in Snoopy are terribly difficult to get.  I finished the game and played some multiplayer and was only able to get a single achievement.   Some achievements are tied to long term play in multiplayer or excellence in that type of play.  Or they are tied to completing the single player in near perfect manner.  I really hate when developers choose to make achievements like this.  But as fun as the game is, you shouldn’t be held back from trying/purchasing the game because of this.

    I found it very fun unlocking all the different planes and weapons in single player.  In multiplayer the player is able to level up and get new titles.  Hopefully after you level up enough you get other things.  But I didn’t have time to level up significantly.  This is definitely the right way to do a XBOX LIVE ARCADE game, with perhaps the exception of the achievements.  You won’t be sorry if you give this game a shot.