Joystiq

Snoopy Flying Ace's Suppertime of Destruction DLC out today

Justin McElroy — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Weird But True, Opinions, New In Pop Culture

All the psychology books we've had briefly summarized to us insist that the only way to accept a difficult truth is in stages. If you've made peace with the fact that one of the best flight combat games of the year is called Snoopy Flying Ace, then you might be ready to hear that (1) today's new DLC is called Suppertime of Destruction and (2) you'll probably want it.

For $5, you'll get two new planes (one controlled by your Avatar), five new multiplayer modes, three weapons, plus new costumes, achievements and more stuff that you can find right after the break. That's right: The DLC for the Snoopy game sounds really appealing. You can lie down on the rug if you need some time to process, but don't be afraid! This is how the healing starts.

Continue reading Snoopy Flying Ace's Suppertime of Destruction DLC out today

Snoopy Flying Ace's Suppertime of Destruction DLC out today originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Snoopy Flying Ace swoops in on the Avatar Marketplace

David Hinkle — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:42:00 EST

Filed under: Weird But True, Opinions, New In Pop Culture

Aside from having about the best intro splash screen ever, Snoopy Flying Ace also has quite the collection of nifty Avatar gear. Oh, and we guess it's a good game and stuff.

But back to the Avatar gear! You'll notice several different props, including your very own virtual Snoopy, complete with his signature red house. You can also snag some miniature dogfighting planes, as well as a cute little Woodstock to play with.

Xbox.com: Add Snoopy Flying Ace Avatar items to your Xbox 360 download queue

Snoopy Flying Ace swoops in on the Avatar Marketplace originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This Wednesday: Soar like an eagle in Snoopy Flying Ace on XBLA

Xav de Matos — Mon, 31 May 2010 21:30:00 EST

Grab your bomber jackets, folks. On June 2, Snoopy: Flying Ace soars to the Xbox Live Arcade for 800 ($10), and if you recall from our previous hands-on experience with the game, it's something we're looking forward to. In Snoopy: Flying Ace, players can take on the role of the famous Peanuts crew or use their own Avatar to pilot fully customizable aircraft.

The part we're most excited about? Outmaneuvering the competition online with graceful tricks reminiscent of the original Xbox gem Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. We look forward to shooting you out of the sky.

Gallery: Snoopy Flying Ace (XBLA)

This Wednesday: Soar like an eagle in Snoopy Flying Ace on XBLA originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 May 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hands-on: Snoopy Flying Ace (XBLA)

Kevin Kelly — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:00:00 EST

Click to barnstorm into the gallery, and watch out for The Red Baron!

First of all, this is not an April Fool's joke. Remember how passionate the Joystiq team got about Torchlight last year? That's how I'm feeling about Snoopy Flying Ace. There are two reasons for this: 1) the gameplay is a direct descendant of Crimson Skies, right down to the customizable weapons on your planes, and 2) you get to shoot down Lucy Van Pelt. It's payback for all those years of her yanking the football away from Charlie Brown at the last second. Charles Schulz might be spinning in his grave over this game, but points one and two combine into joyous gameplay with the lovable Peanuts gang that you've grown up with.

Joystiq showed off the trailer for this almost two years ago, but now I've finally gotten my hands on the flight stick. Which also means I got to fly around as Snoopy in the seat of his faithful Sopwith Camel -- another childhood dream fulfilled. According to Clark Stacey from developer Smart Bomb Interactive, "It is, we maintain, the most detailed and realistic World War I simulation ever created; capturing every nuance of what it was like to be a dog flying a biplane over the skies of Europe in 1917. Consideration for the Nobel Prize for Literature has been bandied around the game with growing seriousness, and we are in talks concerning a possible film adaptation starring Uma Thurman as Snoopy." That's more of an adult dream, yet to be fulfilled.

Update! Ask and you shall receive, courtesy of Clark at Smart Bomb: "Of COURSE you can fly the doghouse. We have two kill streak bonuses in the game for multiplayer. Shoot down 4 planes in a row and you get the Woodstock bonus: Woodstock appears perched on the back of your plane with a pair of six-guns, shooting anyone behind you. Score 9 unanswered kills in a row, and your plane transforms into Snoopy's doghouse, with the most powerful machine gun in the game. It's pretty cool to see your avatar flying around on it."

Read on to find out why you're going to pick up this XBLA title later this year.

Gallery: Snoopy Flying Ace (XBLA)

Continue reading Hands-on: Snoopy Flying Ace (XBLA)

Hands-on: Snoopy Flying Ace (XBLA) originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TGS 2009: The Recap Post

Xav de Matos — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:10:00 EST

Last week, the Tokyo Game Show brought in over 100 posts worth of news, previews, interviews, galleries, and videos. Clearly, a lot happened. If you're looking for a comprehensive list of all the goings-on during TGS 2009, Joystiq has you covered -- and organized!

Click on a platform below to scan the highlights:

(On the far right: that's "News" and "Culture" on the top and bottom, respectively)

Continue reading TGS 2009: The Recap Post

TGS 2009: The Recap Post originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TGS 2009: Snoopy, Toy Soldiers coming to XBLA

Justin McElroy — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:44:00 EST

It's a question we ask ourselves every day: How can we expose our children to the glories of warfare while shielding them from the unpleasant realities of blown-off-arm-stumps? Microsoft has announced not one, but two upcoming war games for the younger set.

The first, Toy Soldiers, is a tower defense game with over fifty different units and online (as well as offline) multiplayer. It's being created by Signal Studios, though we believe this is the developer's first project, so we can't really call that a loss or a win. Stay tuned, we'll have impressions of it for you soon.

The second announcement, Snoopy Flying Ace, is an aerial combat game being developed by Smart Bomb Interactive, the same house behind Snoopy vs The Red Baron. The big shock? It doesn't look half bad. No, seriously! Check out the trailer after the jump to see for yourself.

Source -- Toy Soldiers
Source -- Snoopy Flying Ace

Continue reading TGS 2009: Snoopy, Toy Soldiers coming to XBLA

TGS 2009: Snoopy, Toy Soldiers coming to XBLA originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Peanuts + Crimson Skies = Snoopy Flying Ace

Kevin Kelly — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:15:00 EST

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Adventure, Fighting, Video

What's this? Charlie Brown's beagle, Snoopy, in a game that actually looks like fun? Snoopy Flying Ace looks a little hardcore for the Peanuts crowd, pitting Snoopy against the Germans in World War I. You play as Snoopy, the flying ace, and it doesn't look like he's just fighting the Red Baron anymore, he's taking on all comers. While it's not clear if Charlie Brown, Linus, or any of the others will be showing up, Woodstock is definitely in there.

Smart Bomb Interactive is developing this title, and it's doing it a bit backwards: without a publisher. The developers secured the license for the game on their own, and they're hoping someone will want to get it on shelves once it's finished... in 2010 (!). It looks like an updated version of their own Snoopy vs. The Red Baron, which Namco Bandai published a couple of years ago, and is slated to appear on "the usual consoles" according to their press release.

Since we've yet to see another Crimson Skies title, this might fill the gap until we do. Especially if there's a Lucy vs. Snoopy: No Holds Barred mode.

Peanuts + Crimson Skies = Snoopy Flying Ace originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Snoopy swoops to Wii

Chris Greenhough — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: News, Video

Here's the debut trailer for Snoopy WWI Flying Ace, which appears to be a cross between a flight game and an on-foot action-platformer. Sure, the visuals lack the simple charm of Charles Schulz's original Peanuts strip, but this is no technical slouch: courtesy of an insider source, Go Nintendo's RMC reports that the Wii version features 480p visuals, 16:9 widescreen mode, and runs at 60 frames per second. There will be "important design differences" between this and the Xbox 360 versions, both of which release in early 2009.

Also, the trailer informs us that Snoopy is "popular with the mademoiselles" -- human ones. This revelation filled us with dread, because it reminded us of this.

Snoopy swoops to Wii originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DS releases for the week of October 6th

Alisha Karabinus — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: News

An interesting week for releases around the globe, though the news will, of course, be dwarfed in the wake of all things DSi. Among this week's noteworthy titles are Prey the Stars (at last!), and Korg DS-10 for Europe.

Bleach: Dark Souls
Crash: Mind Over Mutant
Imagine: Babysitters
Imagine: Fashion Designer New York
Kage Densetsu: The Legend of Kage 2
Pop Cutie: Street Fashion Simulation
Prey the Stars
Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals

Continue reading DS releases for the week of October 6th

DS releases for the week of October 6th originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Square Enix launches new label for nontraditional gamers

JC Fletcher — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: News, Imports

Some of you may be saying "Good grief!" or "Aaaaaugh!" right now, but young children and women are the audiences holding the football in the Japanese DS market now, and Square Enix recognizes this. They've launched a new brand called "Pure Dreams" which focuses on casual games for the family audiences. The first two games both carry popular licenses.

Snoopy DS: Let's Go Meet Snoopy and His Friends! is a communication game in which you create a custom Peanuts character and interact with the gang, chatting with them and playing minigames. Pingu's Wonderful Carnival is a minigame collection based on the Swiss stop-motion series about a penguin.

Square Enix is pretty serious about casual gaming in Japan -- this line joins their large DS Style selection in Japan. But outside of Japan, it's still RPG after RPG.

[Via Famitsu; thanks, maduma!]

Square Enix launches new label for nontraditional gamers originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Collecting & Obsessing: Game & Watch

Chris Greenhough — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:45:00 EST

Filed under: Interviews, Features

Throughout the 1980s, Nintendo's Game & Watch series of handhelds provided the soundtrack to innumerable school playgrounds across the globe. A pre-Game Boy attempt to capture the portable games market, Game & Watch titles were relatively cheap but sturdily built toys which came with a single game and, as the name suggests, a watch. For the best part of eleven years, Nintendo kept manufacturing these forerunners to its other handheld devices, only for the Game Boy and Tetris to emerge in 1989 and squash the whole enterprise flat.

Nevertheless, the spirit of Game & Watch lives on through the hundreds of individuals who collect the games. For this one-off piece, DS Fanboy decided to interview two hardcore collectors in a bid to understand their love of Nintendo's first portable phenomenon.

Both 35-year-old Michael Panayiotakis (founder of Mike's Nintendo Game & Watch forum and the author of a quite superb FAQ on the subject) and 38-year-old Andy Cole possess the kind of retrolicious Game & Watch collections that we would maim (and possibly kill) for. To find out what they love about this charming series, why they collect Game & Watch, and why they dedicate so much time and money to their hobby, hit the break for our full interview. Once you've done that, don't forget to browse our gallery for a pictorial history of the Game & Watch phenomenon!

Continue reading Collecting & Obsessing: Game & Watch

Collecting & Obsessing: Game & Watch originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Snoopy teaches English, despite inability to speak out loud

JC Fletcher — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:40:00 EST

Filed under: Screens, Imports

Talk about overcoming adversity: Snoopy, the lovable beagle from Peanuts, is getting his own English training game in Japan, despite being a dog. And despite the fact that the comic from which spinoff products would spin off no longer exists.

English Lessons With Snoopy isn't all learning words and phrases from a cartoon dog, however; the whole Peanuts gang, including chronically depressed Charlie Brown, anxiety-ridden Linus, and Lucy, who is just a jerk, will join in the learning fun. Who's more qualified to assist a dog in teaching language skills than five-year-olds?

The main game, "Event Mode," involves touching everything in a scene to see its English spelling and pronunciation. As you explore, you'll trigger animated events within the scene. There is also a selection of English training minigames, and a number of unlockable non-training minigames, including slide puzzles and a Charlie Brown dress-up game. Surprisingly, his clothing choices are not limited to hundreds of identical yellow shirts.

We are impressed by the size and breadth of the Japanese DS market. We still have yet to get one foreign-language program for the DS, and licensed cash-in language training games are already being released in Japan.

Snoopy teaches English, despite inability to speak out loud originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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