You begin the game as Stewie right when he discovers that his half-brother Bertram is back, and once again Stewie has to survive and compete with Bertram for world domination. Stewie’s style of gameplay focuses on action-shooting and platforming, and the first level sets the tone for how the rest of the game plays out as him. Your very first task is to collect 20 ray gun components to fix your weapon, which felt like a Rugrats game as I realized the simplicity in tasks this game was going to offer. To find the components was easy, as all I had to do was open up cabinets or jump on top of book shelves to find them. This was made even easier since the majority of the game moves similar to a 3-D side-scroller, as there is no 360 degree camera rotation, but only panning the camera a little bit to the left and right, making exploration extremely simple. Often progress in this game will mean making it to the right-side of the screen successfully, although this is not always the case.



After finding enough ray gun components and being given access to the first floor, you have your first opportunity to use Stewie’s infamous Mind Control Device. You need to go outside, but since Stewie is too small to open doors himself, you have to use the device to make one of the other characters do it for you. Whenever there is a context-sensitive action to be performed, Stewie will automatically switch to the appropriate device. To use the Mind Control, you have to aim at a character and hold the X button. This emits wave lengths that puts you in control of the other character. While in control of these characters, you are not able to perform any actions except moving around or using the Y button to activate objects, although you are also able to switch back to Stewie any time you wish. You will occasionally get to use the Mind Control Device at different points in the game to perform tasks impossible for baby Stewie. At one point, there is a button you need to reach, but there are four electric lasers in front of it, preventing easy access. You need a way to block these lasers, and lucky for you, there are also a few nurses in the vicinity. Seems like the perfect opportunity to bust out your Mind Control Device on them right? Wrong. The nurses are blonde, therefore they have no minds to control! Thankfully your sex-fiend neighbor Quagmire is around. Taking control of him, you use Quagmire to talk to each one of the nurses. Naturally, he uses lame and perverted pick-up lines, scaring them off, but he happens to scare them off in the direction of the lasers, soaking up the deadly electrical charges. Only three of the lasers are blocked though, leaving one in your way. Sadly for Quagmire, Stewie finds him expendable as you are forced to place him in the way of the charge to continue. This lets you reach the button and continue your way onto the next level, so not all is lost. This is just one example of how the game combines the show’s humor with the gameplay.

Back to the beginning of the game, once you use the Mind Control Device to go outside, the true action (and what you will be doing most of the game as Stewie) begins. Bertram sends his cronies after you, and you must destroy them all with your now working Ray Gun. Pressing X fires off lasers, which you have an infinite supply of. You can also hold the X button to charge it and launch off a more powerful blast. For the beginning enemies, one blast should take care of them, but as the game progresses, you will face off with enemies that can withstand far more damage. This is where upgrading your Ray Gun comes in. Just because you now have it fixed, does not mean you are done collecting components. Throughout all of Stewie’s levels, there will be ray gun components lying around just waiting to be picked up. You can collect up to 700 total, which each 100-mark giving you an upgrade. For example, when you collect 100 ray gun components, your shot simply becomes more powerful, but when you reach the later stages such as the 300-600‘s, you will be able to fire off grenades and even rockets at will.