Family Guy

Family Guy is powering towards its mid-October release date. We recently had a chance to see an alpha-level build of the game first hand: here are our observations.

Loretta rises again. Didn't she divorce Cleveland?

Loretta rises again. Didn't she divorce Cleveland?

Ah, Family Guy. Fox's other animated middle-class family has survived cancellation, resurrection, and now, hopefully, a new incarnation as a video game.

"It's Just Like The Time When..."

Gameplay is divided between three of the show's key characters: Peter, Stewie, and Brian. Each character's levels flow into the next as part of one gigantic storyline, so you might play as Stewie for ten minutes before a brief stint playing as Peter, and so on.

Stewie's segments were perhaps the most predictable, relying on tried-and-true 3D platform-hopping and shooting mechanics. Stewie sports an upgradeable ray gun, which packs quite a punch: we watched it blow up Peter's car amidst a shower of sparks and smoke -- it was actually rather visually striking, even on the aging PS2 hardware. Otherwise, it looked to be fairly standard stuff: Stewie ran across rooftops and zapped enemy schoolchildren in his quest to stop his arch-rival, Bertram, from stealing his mind-control satellite dish. Later in the game, Stewie heads to the hospital to attack his foe's home base: Peter's testicles (don't ask).

Looks like Chris's zit, Doug, makes an encore appearance

Looks like Chris's zit, Doug, makes an encore appearance

Late in the hospital demo, we watched as Stewie engaged in a top-down shooter than was a clear parody of the classic Atari shooter Centipede. As syringe-tossing doctors and nurses swooped in for the kill, Stewie blew them all away from the bottom of the screen. Even the sound effects were spot-on. Funny stuff, and definitely geared towards that mass-market 80's nostalgia that has been the show's bread and butter.

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