Dogfighting is all about taking to the skies and having a blast and we wouldn’t have thought that it would be this beagle to show us just that. Snoopy, the beagle from Peanuts that we all know and love makes his debut on Xbox Live Arcade in Snoopy Flying Ace. The tale of his alter-ego as a World War One Flying Ace comes to life and it looks and plays fantastically. You control Snoopy as he dodges, weaves and blasts enemies through the campaign, co-op and multiplayer modes.

The campaign features eighteen missions of flying action, set across Europe in WW1. Snoopy’s good friend Charlie Brown leads you into battle through many different modes. At first, we are led to believe that we will just be fighting other planes in an arena style area, but there’s much more than that. Whether it’s defending a monument against the Red Baron and his army from inside a turret, taking down a Zeppelin before it destroys a landmark, or even just playing a simple game of follow the leader with Charlie Brown, there’s always fun to be had.

Your plane can boost and brake with A and X respectively, or even perform U-turns and barrel rolls with a flick of the right stick. The craft also comes equipped with a default machine gun attached to the front, that seems to be as effective at shooting down planes as a paintball gun. Thankfully, you can choose two powerful secondary weapons that you can switch between at any time in battle, ranging from twin shotguns or a large chain gun to more fantasy style weapons such as a leech rocket or swarm missiles.

The campaign is a blast, but a short one at that. The addition of high scores, medals and leaderboards elongates the short but sweet single player experience. The 16 player online multiplayer is where the game really shines, and if you transfer the skills you learned in the single player mode over, you’ll be onto a winner. It plays and flows the same, with only minor framerate problems afflicting an otherwise smooth online experience. The action is always fast paced, with a ranking system, power-ups and the same choice of weapons as in the campaign mode. The local multiplayer is the same, you can face each other, or two players can head online to fight the world.

Co-op, whether it be online or offline, is a great addition, but not a must. It is simply the same campaign missions, except you have a friend to help you complete them in half the time; useful for completing the medal challenges and setting a new score on each level. The thing that really matters throughout all of these modes is choosing the plane and weapons that suit you best. There are a total of sixteen planes to choose from, in three categories: Light, which have high handling and speed but are vulnerable to attacks; Medium, which are balanced in all of these areas; and Heavy, which do not handle as well and cannot speed away but  can take a beating. You can also choose from thirteen character skins, including your own avatar, for the multiplayer modes.

The sound of the weapons, the background music, the noise of a plane going down after destroying it and the little piano interludes all add to the World War One atmosphere. The game looks wonderful, it’s as if this cartoon dogfight has come to life. The vibrant colours are really striking, and all of the weapons look top notch. The only problems are the slight framerate drops and flat ground textures (but why would you be down there anyway? Get back in the action!), however, these are minor problems in an otherwise fantastic game.

Pros:

• Fantastic online multiplayer mode
• Great variety in weapons and planes
• Online leaderboards and scores

Cons:

• Short single player campaign
• Minor framerate and texture issues

It’s a complete surprise that one of the best dogfighting games available would come from the alter-ego of a character from a comic strip. Snoopy Flying Ace features fantastic multiplayer modes that completely eradicate the fact that the campaign is short. It’s great to see a developer that cares for fans of all modes, and because of this, it’s ace.

Score: 9/10