Family Guy Game Review - PAGE 2

As you progress through the first level, you will probably notice that objects in the environment are destructible. Cars, trash cans, mail boxes and more can all be blown up, and on Stewie’s missions, doing so will provide you with Health pick-ups. The small yellow health kits will replenish your health just a little bit, while the big green ones will fill you up a lot more. If you are ever about to die, start blasting anything and everything and there is a good chance you can heal yourself, especially as enemies will also drop Health for you. After progressing to the right of the screen and taking out a bunch of enemies, you will come across a chance to use the grappling hook and play through your very first ‘Non-Sequitur‘ or “Cut Away” mini-game. Non-Sequiturs are gameplay sequences that completely remove you from the current situation into a mini-game of some sort. They are exactly like the scenes from the show when one of the characters say “This reminds me of that one time” or “This is worse than” and it cuts away to a previous and random event, basically what the show is most famous for. In the first Non-Sequitur for Stewie, you are a worker in control of a nail gun, and you are helping install sky hooks because an infant (Stewie) paid you $100 to do so. Another worker is standing on paint cans holding the sky hook up for you so you can nail it down, and once the mini-game starts, you automatically start firing off nails. You do not pass it unless you shoot the ring where the worker‘s hand is at, but it‘s a shame this ends up nailing the worker to the sky hook itself. Successfully completing a Non-Sequitur for Stewie gives you ray gun components to help upgrade your gun. Completing them for other characters gives you different bonuses, but more on that later.

Stewie's first Non-Sequitur

Some of the Non-Sequiturs you play through are taken straight from the show. Such as one where you are having one of Stewie’s “sexy parties”, and he is in his usual sailor outfit chasing around young women in lingerie. The objective here is to chase around a star that is moving about on the floor, and once you finally catch it, everyone starts dancing, just like on the show. There is another one where you are playing ‘Marco Polo’ in the pool with Helen Keller. All you have to do is swim around and not touch her, and seeing as how she is blind and deaf, it shouldn’t be a problem. In fact, you could just not touch the controller at all and beat this mini-game. All of them are incredibly easy, and all of them will actually last less than 10 seconds. If you have not accomplished what you need to do by the time limit (some of them give you three seconds, others more) you fail, not getting any upgrades, and you only have one chance for success.

One of Stewie's "sexy parties"...

After completing the first Non-Sequitur, you get to use Stewie’s grappling hook for the first time. When you are near a sky hook, an icon will appear in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Pressing and holding B launches the hook onto the ring and pulls you up, so if you are stuck somewhere and a double-jump doesn’t do the trick, move about to see if the icon appears on your screen. After doing so and reaching the rooftops, you come across a large gap between the houses. This is the first time you are forced to use Stewie’s Balloon Float ability. Pressing A, and then pressing it again and holding it causes Stewie to float by the use of balloons tied around his waist. Just like in this situation, you will use this ability to cross large gaps or to float above dangerous terrain.

Baby Torpedo...

Once you have reached this point in the game, you have pretty much experienced what most of the game is going to be like as Stewie. Sure, the environments change and you will encounter more dangerous enemies, but other than avoiding traps or destroying laser grids, there isn’t that much else you get to do. In fact, a large part of the game involves ricocheting lasers off walls to destroy these laser grids so you can continue safely without zapping yourself, causing instant death. It can get a little old, as you have to continuously fire off blasts while finding the perfect angle to blow up the grids, and it’s a situation you are constantly forced into that breaks apart the action and impedes your progress. There are other parts of the game where you get to slide across areas on your stomach like a sluggish baby torpedo, but that is it. Often at times the gameplay for Stewie felt just like Space Invaders, as the camera changes to behind Stewie as you strafe right and left, dodging lasers and taking out waves of enemies.