If you know anything at all about me, you know that I love Snoopy.   So you can imagine how jazzed I was to learn about the eye-popping upcoming videogame Snoopy WWI Flying Ace. *

Autumn always rekindles fond memories of the great old Peanuts animated holiday "specials" we always watched as kids.   Snoopy’s heroic World War I fighter waged aerial battle and crossed imaginary wartime France as a downed pilot in Charles Shulz’s "It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" in October 1966.

Smart Bomb Interactive’s new game, scheduled for release in the 1st quarter of 2010 for all major consoles, once again pits Snoopy against Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. the Red Baron and the rest of those dastardly wartime Germans.   From the sneak preview trailer, it looks like they’ve certainly met their match!

If you can’t get enough of the Flying Ace, there’s even a Snoopy Flying Ace USB hub for your desktop.   Just plug the hub into your PC’s USB port and watch Snoopy & his faithful Sopwith Camel come alive!

And though you’ve probably seen it countless times, just how well do you know "It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown?"

* Okay, never mind that we don’t even own a game console — I can still get excited about a game, right?   Maybe this will push us over the edge?
 

Labels: games, Snoopy, tv

A few days ago I asked the Monopoly trivia question:   What’s the formal name of the game’s mustached mascot.   Bob made a good guess, but no cigar.

"Rich Uncle Milburn Pennybags" first appeared in 1936.   It’s believed that the character is at least partially based on legendary capitalist & financier J.P. Morgan.   He was officially rechristened "Mr. Monopoly" by Hasbro in 1999.

By the way, the sad fellow behind bars is "Jake the Jailbird" and "Officer Edgar Mallory" is the cop who patrols the "Go To Jail" square.
 

Labels: games

It seems that the drive for immediate gratification has corrupted yet another element of my childhood.   Maybe I’m just a nostalgic atavist, but when I learned (from Dede) that the newest versions of Monopoly use plastic instead of paper money, I was crushed.

Yup, rather than shipping with traditional compliment of $15,140 in cash, Monopoly’s colorful paper currency has now been replaced with 5 shiny debit cards that you swipe in a digital reader when purchasing properties, paying rent, or making other transactions.

That’s just disturbing.

Sure, it’s just a board game, but it always had an educational aspect as well.   Monopoly was the first exposure most of us had to handling cash, investing in property, saving for improvements, negotiating power deals, entering into financial partnerships, and planning for future expenses — like making sure you’ve got enough money to withstand the fiscal devastation should you fail to successfully hopscotch through your brother’s "Hotel Row" via Community Chest, Luxury Tax, or one of those blasted railroads.

So, do you feel that debit cards ruin the classic game or does the electronic angle give a tired old game a compelling new twist?   Post a comment and let us know what your take is on this!

Related Trivia:   Extra bonus points to whoever can correctly give the formal name of Monopoly’s mustached mascot.   (No fair Googling the answer!)

Update:   Discover the answer to the Monopoly trivia question!
 

Labels: games, opinion

Ever wish you could perform splashy jumps & flips like a dolphin? Well, with Hybrid Arcade’s simple but fun little Flash-based online game called Dolphin Olympics, that I dicovered while rummaging around on Things That... Make You Go Hmm, you can do just that.
 

Labels: dolphins, games

This is a cool site where you move your mouse cursor around on the guy’s face to bug him. Keep clicking on him until he’s had enough.

www.yonkis.com/mediaflash/cursor.swf
 

Labels: cool sites, games