DLC Review: This is a review for a DLC pack. It requires Snoopy Flying Ace in order to be used.

Snoopy Flying Ace is a rarity among XBLA online games in that it has managed to hold onto a decent population of players even months after release, so the idea of buying expansion packs for this isn’t as daunting as it might be for other, now deserted, games. Suppertime of Destruction asks for $5 USD/400 Microsoft Points, and offers several new play modes, two new planes that offer genuinely different ways to fight from the normal aircraft, some new weapons, and on the decorative side of things most of the existing Peanuts cast gets new costumes while planes have various new skins.

While the costumes and skins are pretty obvious and not worth discussing at any great length, the rest of the content is much more interesting. The new planes are easily the biggest thing going for Suppertime of Destruction, as they’re relatively light craft with unusual weapons. First is Woodstock’s Whirlybird, which is able to hover in place and carries an aircraft-scale sniper rifle. This plane is extremely fragile and doesn’t carry any of the normal special weapons (so it only has the machine gun and its unique rifle), but it has some real value in team-play formats. For example, you can find a good place to hover and then offer long range support to your teammates; the rifle is a little hard to aim at such distances, but a single hit does massive damage to any foe and makes it easy for your friends to mop up. It can also be used in free-for-all combat, but I’m not entirely sure it’s all that good in this format.

The other new plane is the Dragonfly, specifically meant to be piloted by your Avatar. Like the Whirlybird this plane lacks the usual array of special weapons, instead carrying a close-range lightning gun. This weapon’s major use is to ’hose down’ a nearby enemy or ideally a group of enemies, since a momentary hit with it is meaningless but if you can keep it on them you’ll find the electric effect does lots of damage and interferes with their usual abilities. It would seem the primary use is to swoop in on a large fight and blast away, making it a less specialized choice than Woodstock’s Whirlybird sniping.

If neither of those appeal to you, the new special weapons meant for use by the original planes may be more interesting. The Thumper is a projectile that launches into the sky, then glides down on a parachute while emitting shockwaves; probably not so useful in a one on one dogfight but it could perhaps allow ’bombing runs’ on an enemy formation in team games. The "Lil Yellow" are essentially homing rockets with slight differences from the other versions of that weapon; not game-changers but they could be a perfect fit for some players. Finally, Seekers are also long range homing projectiles but their gimmick is that each one does very little damage; instead, they home very well and you get about thirty of them at a time, so they can fill some combat niches quite well.

There are also five new modes to play, though these seem to vary wildly in popularity with the online population. Even after several evenings, I have been unable to try the Dirty Boy mode (which is described as a team mode where you try to spread Pigpen’s dust cloud onto the opposing team), and the same is true of Turret Defense (hold both turrets for X amount of time to win), Wild Woodstock, and Team Wild Woodstock (Game modes where you have to round up birds and fly them to a cage), but Top Dog seems very popular. Top Dog is essentially Team Deathmatch with a twist in that one player on each team is designated as their Ace, and that Ace gets a super-powered version of their normal plane. When the Ace dies, someone else becomes their team’s Ace. However, it’s in your interest to protect your team’s Ace even if you want a turn as being one because your team wins if you kill more Aces than the enemy does. This leads to an interesting dynamic; are you an aggressive Ace that takes advantage of your power, or do you fly defensively to stay alive? Do you fly escort for your team’s Ace, or go hunting the enemy Ace? It’s an interesting mode, and no wonder it has a decent population.

All of this leaves us with a pretty good expansion to the original game. The two new planes each add something genuinely new to Snoopy Flying Ace, the three extra special weapons have their niches to fill, and at least one of the new play modes seems to be fun enough to keep a decent population of players around for it. While I doubt these features will bring back anyone who didn’t like the original game, if you’re still a fan or you enjoyed Snoopy Flying Ace but simply haven’t played it recently, you may as well pick this up.