Snoopy Flying Ace - Xbox Live Arcade

If you ever told me I would really enjoy a video game based off of the Peanuts cartoon strip I would have probably called you crazy... there are just some things that I wouldn't think would lend themselves well to the medium. Turns out I was wrong. Though I think if you had told me the Peanuts game I was going to enjoy was going to be a World War I flying game I probably would have tilted my head the same way a dog does when you tell it something.

A while back my brother bought Snoopy Flying Ace, but I never really played it. I heard it was fun but it didn't really interest me all that much. Then XBLA had a huge sale and Snoopy Flying Ace was dropped to 400MS points. It's hard for me to turn down a $5 game, so I bought it.

Snoopy Flying Ace is just cartoony fun. It's what you expect from a dogfight sim based off of Peanuts. The single player isn't a huge long experience, but it is fun. It's just difficult enough to not be frustrating and just easy enough to just be fun. I spent a couple hours going through the campaign one weekend and had a good time doing it. I never made it to the multiplayer (I was sans internet at the time) but if it's as fun as the single player I can see sinking quite a few hours into it.

Snoopy Flying Ace is totally worth the $5 I paid and is certainly worth the $10 it normally is. If you want a kind of cartoony flying/dogfight game it's definitely worth checking out.

Squid.

Doom II - Xbox Live Arcade

We all played Doom 2. If you're over the age of about 25 there's a good chance you spent many hours killing demons from hell. The Doom series wasn't the original first person shooter, but it was definitely the game that skyrocketed the series to what it is today. Everyone played Doom. Hell, my dad has beat Doom.

I picked up Doom 2 on XBLA a while back, not really sure what to expect. I hadn't played Doom 2 in quite some time and a lot of computer games from that time have not aged well. Blocky graphics, clunky controls, and you know how in modern games you can aim up and down? Not in Doom 2, bitches. I was very curious to see how a game like that would transfer over to the 360.

The answer? Incredibly well. Shockingly well. The last time I played Doom 2 the one major complaint I had with it was the control scheme. These were the days before WASD, you had to use the arrow keys. As odd as it seems this is incredibly awkward, especially after years of using WASD, but with the controller this is a thing of the past. The controls are great, I couldn't have asked for a better control scheme.

You know what else I found out? Doom 2 is still very fun. The later levels somewhat dragged on a bit, but overall Doom 2 is still a blast. It's nice to go back to a time in FPS games where there was a paper thin plot but a shitload of bad guys for you to kill. That's what Doom 2 is. A game where you can turn your brain off and just kill as many of hell's minions as possible.

If you haven't played Doom 2 before I want to welcome you out from that rock you've been been living under (I'll also accept the excuse of being too young), but you know what? With the great port we have of Doom 2 for XBLA there is absolutely no excuse for not having playing this game. Go out and buy it, it's well worth the 800MS points.

Squid.

Trials HD - Xbox Live Arcade

I first played Trials HD over at my brother's house, I'm not sure how he discovered it but all I know is that after playing it I was hooked. I went home that night and bought it for myself. I've been playing it ever since. It's been at least a year now, I would say that a month doesn't go by where I don't play Trials HD at some point.

Trails HD is just fun. There's no other way to put it. It's fun. Incredibly fun. It's a game that you'll find yourself playing when you have a few spare minutes. Have a spare five minutes? Hop on and play a few levels. Have a spare hour? Hop on and play a bunch of levels. Have a spare couple hours and some friends? I guarantee you can kill those hours with some Trials HD. You know how I know all of this? Because I've done all of those before... many, many times. You know what? I'll probably keep doing those things in the future.

Trials HD doesn't really seem to get old. I don't know how many hours I've played it, or how many times I've played certain levels, and yet I haven't grown tired of the game. I still try and beat my fastest time. I still try new things. I still try different bikes on different levels. I still haven't grown tired of it.

As I said, Trials HD is fun. For a fairly simplistic physics motorcycle game I seem to find myself playing it over and over and over again. If you don't own it already go out and buy it right this second. Trust me, you won't regret it.

Squid.

Hexic - Xbox Live Arcade

I'm not exactly sure how to review a puzzle game. How long do you have to play a puzzle game before you can review it? How do you review a game that you can't really beat? I'm not sure of the answer to either of those questions. I do however know that Hexic is a damn fun, addicting puzzle game that once I started playing I didn't want to put it down.

I think Hexic came with my Xbox 360 when I bought it. It's been sitting on my hard drive for about two and a half years now and not once have I ever bothered playing it. Hell, Hexic 2 was released in 2007 and I didn't even bother to play the first one despite the fact that I owned it. I wish I had discovered this game sooner because it's a hell of a fun time.

I'm not sure how to explain Hexic. You have a bunch of hexagons that are different colors and you can move them in a circle and you have to clump three of more of the same color together to clear them from the board. It's a very simple concept and frankly it's very fun. They throw obstacles in your way like bombs that you have to clear before the timer gets down to zero, which while it sounds easy can actually be very difficult. You can also make "flowers" which is a similar colored hexagons surrounding a middle, if you do this you get a special piece. Make those special pieces into a flower and you get a black pearl, get three black pearls clumped and you win your game. There's several different game types for you to choose from as well, that's just your normal game. There's also a timed version as well as a version that every round locks the pieces you didn't use the round before.

All and all the game is rather simplistic, but because of this it's easily accessible and fun. There's times where I started playing just thinking I was going to play one game, an hour later I've been sucked in and am still playing.

Hexic surprised me in how fun I would find it. It's a throughly enjoyable game that I find myself going back to when I have a spare few minutes. Check your Xbox and see if it's on the hard drive, it might have come free with it. You also occasionally see free promotions of the game as well. It's a really fun game and it's definitely worth giving a try.

Squid.

Doritos Crash Course - Xbox Live Arcade

Like me you probably got Doritos Crash Course when it was free. Hell, it still might be free I'm not really sure. I just saw a message saying it was free so I grabbed it up... because frankly I can't resist free things.

So what can you expect from a free game brought to you by Doritos? Surprisingly a fairly fun time. It won't be winning any game of the year awards but it certainly was worth free.

You must guide your avatar through several different obstacle courses with different types of terrain as well as obstacles (it is after all an obstacle course). You're timed but you don't seem to lose anything by not finishing, you just have to finish.

Overall it's a pretty fun game. It kept me entertained for an hour or so and frankly I'll probably go back and play it again at some point down the line. It's the kind of game you play when you have a couple spare minutes that you want to waste.

This is a short review, but I'm not exactly sure what I can say about a game that involves me running an obstacle course. I just checked and as far as I can tell it's still free. Overall I was rather impressed by it. Go download it, what do you have to lose?

Squid.