I didn't expect much out of this game when I first started it up, even after our very own Derrick had written its praises in his impressions from the PAX East show floor. I thought it would lack depth, variation, and imagination. What's more, I don't tend to find the Peanuts comics entertaining, never understanding the fascination. And while I could still make an argument for all of those points, the game is just downright fun, and does well enough on its own merits to not have to dress up the gameplay all the time to fake interest through newness.

 

Blitzkrieg Bop

 

You take the wheel of Snoopy's plane as he flies the skies of Europe, shooting down the Luftwaffe, which consists of Cadet Rerun, Corporal Linus, Lucy Van Pelt, and the dreaded Red Baron, Nazi-fied versions of several Peanuts characters with the exception of the last. Your plane has two secondary weapons equipped at all times in addition to your standard machine gun, which recharge as you use them; more can be unlocked as you progress through single player mode. You also have access to a few stunts you can pull at any time to get you out of some sticky situations, which is governed by a meter that, along with your health, also recharges over time, giving you a complete refresh if you can get away from battle for a moment. Finish it off with a boost and an air brake, and you have the foundation of a simple aerial combat game.

 

 

Truth be told, the game is quite simple: shoot down the enemies that swarm you. Oftentimes, the mission is little more than attacking. Occasionally there's protection of a landmark involved, or a zeppelin to destroy, but it always boils down to the same thing. This is not a complaint...I actually liked the dogfighting a lot, especially when confronting a solid mass of 15 planes or so. The other option you get for holding back the airborne National Socialist Agenda is the Anti Air guns placed around some of the maps. These are easily the most deadly option, and with no necessity to lead the target, you can use your secondary weapon, point at targets, and hit the "kill" button. Twice through the single player campaign across Europe, there are levels where you take control of an AA gun on a zeppelin, switching between shooting down planes that attack and bomb targets, which I found to be the highlight of the experience. There are a few "Follow the Leader" and "Race" missions, but these are quickly over and forgotten.

 

The single player campaign is only 18 missions, each ranging from 3-10 minutes long, and the whole ordeal can be gotten through in 2 hours or so. There are a few different level types, from a tropical island reminiscent of Crimson Skies to mountains of ice in Sweden to a Snoopy Sphinx in Africa. While these levels are your basic fare, there's an incredibly detailed rendition of Paris that's simply a joy to fight over, and luckily you get to visit it twice. Each level gives you a new weapon and/or plane to fight with; most of the weapons feel and act differently, though some of the planes have identical stats, and having chosen a new one a few missions in, I felt no need to change.

Ultimately, the entire game is streamlined, but I didn't have a problem with that. Those two hours were some good fun, never getting too tough, and I'd be tempted to go back and try for better rankings on the missions on both difficulties. There are more planes to gain through doing this, too. Some of the levels are forgettable, but some I played a second time after I initially finished them just for the sheer fun of it. After flying through a crowd of enemy fighters spraying fire randomly and watching them fall out of the sky, I found myself trying to organize the remaining enemies in such a way to do it again.

 

The polish makes it feel like more than a downloadable game, and the gameplay is enough to keep me around for more than just the first playthrough. Again, there's not a whole lot to this game, but that's not a problem. It captures the excitement of dogfighting, and gave enough variation to keep me glued to my seat the entire time. 

The real strength is the online multiplayer, and with all of the levels from the single player available and some new power-ups, most of your time with the title will be spent in one of these modes. There are also split-screen and online co-op modes which you may try a few times, but are largely superfluous. Before and after each online match, you can change your pilot, plane, and weapons. The teams are randomly selected, but it seemed that if the same party stuck together for long enough, everyone seemed to even out for skill. And while you can gain points for performance, it doesn't impact your abilities at all, putting the veteran and newcomer on equal ground, something I've always felt was vital to an online mode.

 

 

While I felt no need to switch weapons in the single player mode, I incorrectly assumed it was because they weren't so different. The second I got into an online multilayer mode, I found it was because the computerized enemies were too easy. Combat with up to 16 players makes for some crazy matches, and you'll find yourself soaring through maelstroms of rockets, bullets and mines as you try to complete a few different objectives. There's Dog Pile, where you try to hold a bone the longest; Pigskin, where football is loosely adapted to aerial combat; Dogfight, where it's a free-for-all of death; and the usual Capture the Flag.

I simply can't believe how well balanced the combat is; even entering for the first time, I felt like I had a good handle on what was going on, and had a fighting chance. What's more, even though chaos will quickly assert itself, you can feel the impact of your actions, and aren't always immediately swarmed when you have the item of desire in a match. Adding points for revenge kills, taking down occupied turrets, and assists makes combat all the more rewarding, and the addition of map-specific hazards (that can be activated with the proper power-up) really takes these dogfights to another level. While the turret is near omnipotent in single-player, in multiplayer it becomes only a vulnerable added variant in battle, and they've been placed so sparingly and strategically that the action isn't bogged down by their existence. Taking over the turret at an enemy's base can net you a few quick kills, but the victory is fleeting at best as the jig is quickly up.

Simply said, this is how online aerial combat should be. It feels right, it plays right, there's not too much lag, the learning curve is small and shouldn't discourage newcomers, and there's enough variety for aces to tweak their strategies. What more can a guy ask for?