Snoopy vs. The Red Baron

Details: Category: Computer; By Blake Popkess; 13.Jan; Hits: 9216

System Requirements: -Microsoft Windows Xp/2000/Vista -Pentium 3 1GHz processor or equivalent -NVIDIA GeForce3 64MB (ATI Radeon 7500 64MB) card or higher -256MB RAM -1.5GB free hard drive space -16-Bit DirectX 8 compatible sound card Snoopy’s dream has come true! And so has yours if you enjoy flying and fighting in a WW1 biplane! Take to the skies with the famous beagle and all his friends to fight the legendary Red Baron and his co-horts!

Game-play:

Snoopy can be played in one of two modes: the campaign mode or the dogfight mode, both of which can be challenging and fun. The campaign’s 20 missions, in which you are pitted up against the forces of the Red Baron, are divided up into four different environments, each of which have several levels. Different planes and upgrades can also be unlocked or purchased as you go along. As for its difficulty, the campaign actually gets downright hard after a while, like on the level where Linus challenges you to a race. Not only do you have to follow Linus through a difficult obstacle course, but you also have to fights off hordes of enemy fighters at the same time. I still haven’t beaten it! The dogfight mode allows you to choose a pilot, environment, teams, and victory conditions for an air battle. Although the AI bots (Snoopy has no online modes) are actually pretty smart, it’s not very hard to take on another team evenly matched. It’s when you start pitting yourself up against 3 or so others that it starts to get difficult. The third-person (dog in this case) game-play in Snoopy is really very smooth and simple, besides a few little quirks here and there, such as the odd controls on the main menu.(You will see what I mean if you get it) Flying is easy with a joystick, but very, very hard with a mouse or keyboard, so I would definitely suggest you have one before you get this game. Aiming and shooting are pretty easy too, thanks to a big green sight out in front of your plane, which turns red when you are locked on to an enemy. Oh, and did you know that they had follow missiles, turbo boosters, and radar in WW1 as well?? Well, no, not really, but they do in Snoopy! This really adds to the action, even if it does take away some from the historical side.(come on, a dog is flying this plane!) However, the amount of items on the game screen is actually few and simple, comprised of your radar, health and stunts bars, and the number of rockets you have. Objectives will flash up on the screen, and are shown on your radar. So really, anyone can get the hang of the controls in 10 minutes or less.

Stability:

I haven’t noticed any major bugs at all in Snoopy, so I would consider it stable. No crashes or freeze-ups so far.

Graphics:

The graphics in Snoopy are terrific, the environments, bullets, rockets, and explosions all appearing in their full glory.

Appropriateness:

The violence in Snoopy does not involve any death at all, enemy pilots simply bailing out in a parachute when you blow up their planes. So while there is no blood or gore whatsoever in the game, you can expect lots and lots of explosions from the innumerable things you shoot. And besides that, there is no language or anything else inappropriate present, except for maybe the sadistic nature of the comical laugh that comes from Snoopy when he is blowing up lots of things.

Overall:

Overall Snoopy is simply a fun action-packed game that refrains from any heavy violence, which is refreshing in a world where Grand Theft Auto and the like are taking over the game market. I would take the liberty to say that this game is completely appropriate (as well as fun!) for all age-groups. Trust me, if you enjoy any of the popular flight simulators out there, you will definitely enjoy this one, unless you simply can’t enjoy a game like that without seeing enemy pilots and their planes go down in a sheet of smoke and flames.