[#] Snoopy vs. the Red Baron (Namco, PlayStation 2, 2006)

It just needs a bigger gun.

From the "God I'm glad this exists" department, Snoopy vs. the Red Baron lets you take to the skies and shoot down actual Germans or the rest of the Peanuts cast with machine guns and explosives. Yeah! Anyone who knows Peanuts knows about Snoopy's nemesis Manfred von Richthofen, and this is an entire alternate reality game where the Peanuts cast, in uniform and all, are cast as WW1 Allies to recover the stolen plans for a war-ending ICBM called the Doodlebug and save Charlie Brown, who's been taken as a prisoner of war. Snoopy is the man of the hour here, top dog, flying ace—and Woodstock's always beside him for logistical support (read: more dakka).

Each mission is about ten minutes long and takes place over five different battlefields, from green islands to the blistering cold of the Matterhorn. Snoopy handles great, my own stupidity getting him occasionally tangled in scenery aside, and with upgrades, he can put out an impressive amount of firepower as he bombs power stations and U-boats and dogfights (was the pun intended all along?) the other fighter planes. Some of the switchable secondary weapons might be silly, like bees and potato guns, but there's still wholeass fireworks, rockets, and high voltage blast guns in the mix too. Snoopy will fuck you up.

This game has a way of making war adorable though. Orders are given by a fatigues-clad combination of Linus and Lucy, Marcie is your side's dweeby top scientist, Rerun and Peppermint Patty back you up in bombing Axis bases and pillboxes, and funny little 3D cutscenes show the kids are still kids, bombs or not. It's a compelling, fun, short little package—probably for the best given the general one-dimensional nature of the combat and occasional frustration of the game unavoidably raining shit on you. Nothing's perfect, but this game could make a pinko commie join the war effort, and I think that's wonderful.