On Taking to the Skies with Snoopy

So, how long have I had an Xbox 360? Five years?

How much have I played it?

Umm. I think maybe three hours.

Today I hooked it up, attached a network adapter, and signed up for Xbox Live. Like I said a year and a half ago, I really wanted Snoopy Flying Ace.

I’d never had an Xbox Live account, and getting one set up was a little problematic; Xbox Live refused to accept my e-mail address as legit. A Gmail address that I don’t use, though, was perfectly fine.

I got through selecting an avatar, I got through adding Xbox Live points to my account, and then I made the purchase.

Snoopy Flying Ace will go down as the first Xbox Live Arcade game I’ve bought. 🙂

I playing through the training mission.

I wasn’t good at Crimson Skies, and my flying skills have not improved any in eight years.

I crashed my plane into ice walls. I crashed it into the glacial surface. I struck the water. My plane was battered and bruised, and when it came time for a dogfight with two of the Red Baron’s henchmen, I had great difficulty in getting a decent lock on the Germans’ biplanes. Fortunately, because it was a training mission, they didn’t fire back.

Still, it was great fun. And I feel the overwhelming urge to listen to “Snoopy’s Christmas” by the Royal Guardsmen…

I don’t know why I’ve never really played my Xbox 360. Considering the trouble I went through and suffered through to get it (the Xbox 360 launch still gives me chills just thinking about it), it’s surprising that I’ve never given the system any use.

But, for Snoopy Flying Ace, I imagine that I will. Oh, yes. 🙂

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

9 thoughts on “On Taking to the Skies with Snoopy

  1. I tried this and sucked at it too — I couldn’t decide whether the regular or inverted controls were more confusing — but I too look forward to improving.

  2. A year and a half ago, I was a mostly PC gamer with a little bit of Wii thrown in. Now I’m more or less 360 exclusive. I still haven’t figured out how that happened.

    Maybe you were afraid to play yours because it’s a ticking time bomb being a launch console? 😉

  3. My 360 actually isn’t a launch console.

    I did have a launch console, though, only I never hooked it up. About two years ago, I took it to a local EB Games and traded it towards a newer system. (Lord of the Rings: Conquest had just come out, and I really wanted to play it, because I’m such a Lord of the Rings geek.) The guy behind the counter thought that there was clearly a scam going on; I was trading a still in all the wrapping Xbox 360 toward another Xbox 360, and that struck him as very strange.

    Even with a new system, I still didn’t hook up my 360. I have no idea of Conquest is any good. (Based on what I’ve read, I’m suspecting not. And if I want pure LotR hack-n-slash, there are a couple of levels in Return of the King that are more than sufficient to the purpose.)

    The first year of having the system, I was burned out on EB Games — and games in general. Then I left EB (or rather, GameStop), then I moved. The second year, I was busy with a new job that I hated, then busy with a newer job that I loved. And I was bitter about GameStop (they never paid me for my last week as a store manager), and I wasn’t buying games. By that point, I wasn’t even interested in games any more.

    It wasn’t until I bought LEGO Star Wars III a few weeks ago that I hooked up the 360. I’m not even sure if I like LEGO Star Wars III. I haven’t felt a lot of interest in turning the system on and playing it.

    The next game I’m buying is Lord of the Rings: War in the North.

  4. I like the standard adventure levels in LEGO Star Wars III – they’re, well, like the first two games but better. The pseudo-RTS levels are just weird.

    1. I’ve heard about the RTS-like levels.

      Damn, it just dawned on me that this year is the 15th-anniversary of Shadows of the Empire.

  5. That long? Wow. (Then again, at the time I’m not sure I had even seen Star Wars yet…)

    That said, the game is probably best left forgotten. I would like to see the other N64 games—Rogue Squadron, Battle for Naboo, and Racer—redone for modern consoles, though…

    1. That long, yeah.

      I was thinking more in terms of the book and the soundtrack, which were fifteen years ago this month. The game was September ’96, I think. Big year for Star Wars.

      I’ve never played the game. I did play Racer, but not on the 64 (which had a controller I never did figure out how to use). I played it on the DreamCast, and it was pretty snazzy on that.

      I didn’t have a lot of interest in Battle for Naboo, because I’d already played Starfighter on the PS2, and much like my complaint about World War II games (there’s really only so many times you can retake Omaha Beach), there’s only so many times you can fight the Trade Federation blockade.

  6. Both Snoopy/Red Baron flying games are “official” games of my STARFLEET chapter. You really should join the USS Richthofen collective, Allyn… 🙂

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