Family Guy's Perfect Trash Licensed Game

Licensed

game

s have a bad reputation, most

game

s are images of one and you'll probably get a response like this, what no, no, ah, ah, oh, what's wrong with you, my god, and although there are many examples excellent IPS based gaming. Other outlets haven't done much to reduce the stigma associated with the phrase

licensed

game, so what is it about

licensed

games that has given them such a bad reputation and how did Family Guy manage to

perfect

the formula to create the definitive game? ? rubbish licensed game oh my god a good place to start is asking why licensed games are made in the first place, one of the most common reasons is that the movie is related to a new summer blockbuster on the horizon and studio executives take notice.

It would be a good idea to reunite The Gamers with a video game developed shortly, developed in just six months and hastily released just in time for the film's opening weekend. This is how you end up with a B-movie game published by Activision and developed by Just kidding, don't bother, oh wow, sometimes the licensed game is created because it turns out that the IP lends itself quite well to the game, think novels fantasy, Comic Book Heroes or countless other Star Wars games that span different genres, if perhaps more were created with these egos. the term licensed game would invoke a sense of joy rather than resentment in the hearts of gamers.

Fed up with years of disappointing releases, but unfortunately we live in a society and most of the time licensed games are created because the intellectual property being licensed is popular if a lot of people like something. maybe a lot of people will like the stuff game and more importantly maybe a lot of people will pay for the stuff game and therefore you end up with Family Guy back in the Multiverse. This game was announced in May 2012 with very little fanfare and for good reason seemingly coming out of nowhere with almost no details being shared within the announcement itself, no one knew what to expect a few months later Andy Owen, Activision's lead producer , wrote for the official Playstation blog stating that making a good licensed game is difficult, but that Family Guy Back to the Multiverse would be great for both gamers and fans of the show and that was it, except for some screenshots and Fortunately, A Game's veteran journalist would come to the rescue in the weeks leading up to the game's release.

IGM posted a video preview hosted by its own Greg Miller and the second most enthusiastic Family Guy fan it could find in the office at 2 p.m. m. on a Tuesday Greg, it's almost 2013. Yeah, and it's still amazing Family Guy, it's still good days, most of us stopped watching Family Guy a long time ago. Greg would go on to reveal that the game would be a third-person action-adventure game that he had personally been able to play and was cautiously optimistic about, but I enjoyed it, I'm excited about it, oh it's good, yeah, well it's one of those Things I don't want to be fooled about.

I don't want to be fooled or deceived. I say it's good and then I review it and give it a little rating and someone gets mad at me November 20, 2012 Family Guy back to the Multiverse releases for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC and gets absolutely terrible reviews, no one likes it this game and a particularly scathing review of Destructoids Jim Sterling describes it as unrestricted, unrepentant

trash

, oh my goodness, interestingly, the highest score the game received was from IGN, a 6 out of 10, which really means it's a 3 out of 10 at most. Now here's where I get into the story.

I was a big fan of Family Guy growing up and when I first heard about this game, when I was 13, I was very intrigued. I was really intending to get it despite not meeting the minimum age requirement until the bad reviews discouraged me and the screenshots didn't look very interesting either. However, I can't fast forward a decade later and I thought, you know, let's give the game a chance. I've always been curious about it and at the very least it could be a good laugh. Whether with the game or now, this game was delisted from Steam just two years after its release, so I had to purchase a used copy from eBay before firing up the old PlayStation 3 and embarking on what would turn out to be one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever had, oh man this is so bad.

I'm dumbfounded, so what are the tropes of a typical license game? Well, first, there is usually awkward presentation or just bad graphics and there are two main reasons for this. The number one thing is that licensed games are usually rushed, especially in the case of tie-in movies, where the development studios They generally have less than a year to put together something playable, so this often results in actors not being rendered correctly as 3D models for the purpose of not doing so. It's not about creating an original aesthetic or pushing the boundaries of graphical fidelity, but rather about making the game's characters vaguely resemble their big-screen counterparts, if they bother to try to look for any resemblance, Peter .

The second reason is that licensed games often deviate. From the original art style of the IP for something like Toy Story 3, this wasn't a problem for that game because the characters were already 3D rendered models, but for characters from 2D animated properties, converting them to 3D models often It can seem, at best, uncomfortable and downright horrible. At its worst, South Park is a great example of an IP that was able to translate its characters into a game world and have them still look like the originals, although not without failing a couple of times first, unfortunately, The same cannot be said for Family.

Guy back to the Multiverse, the game begins with the introduction of Classic Family Guy literally taken straight from the show and then jarringly greeted with cel-shaded 3D models that seem right at home on the PS2. This game isn't the prettiest, but I will say that you get used to it after a while, I promise, and it helps that the characters at least sound like they're supposed to talk, which is the second trope of your typical licensed game with minimal input from the creators of the original IP. Usually the most involvement you'll get from anyone associated with the original property is some half-heartedly modified voice lines by cast members contractually obligated to do so and I don't need anyone to question me, you're not my coach, Punk, that's it Kinda selfish, I'm talking about forgetting about yourself, man, and sometimes the studio can't even cover the original cost, so you have to hire someone who can hopefully make a decent impression.

This was the case with Woody in Kingdom Hearts 3. Tom Hanks wouldn't do it, so they got the best option, Jim Hanks, Tom's younger brother. I swear I'm not kidding, what are you talking about? then get lost, luckily for Family Guy, most of the voices are done by one guy, Seth MacFarlane, who also created the show, so all they'd have to do is get him into the recording booth for an afternoon or two and them. They would have more than half the lines they would need for the game. Now we've seen what it looks like when the creators of a program fully invest in the quality of their licensed game, but most of the time this is not the case.

Aside from providing voice talent, it doesn't seem like Seth and the rest of the showrunners were all that involved in the development process with the exception of two writers, Anthony Blasucci and Mike Desolates. Now, at the time this game was released, these two had only been credited with co-writing two episodes of the show, one of which is considered below average and the other has one of the lowest ratings. of the show, so it begs the question: could these two with their limited experience and not-so-great track record? write a decent 6 hour adventure and avoid the third trope of typical licensed games, bad writing, no they wouldn't, but don't let me sway you.

I'll let you be the judge, Stewie Griffin. I have Bertram, but how is this? Possible, I killed you, you just killed me in this universe, you fool, oh, so you got a remote control from the Multiverse, huh, actually, I did. This game is based on the highest-rated Family Guy episode of all time, Road to the Multiverse, in which Brian and Stewie jump. a series of alternate universes using Stewie's Multiverse remote control, now Toilet is Stewie's half-brother and his sworn nemesis, who is eventually killed by Stewie in the 15th century, approximately 600 years before either of them were born.

Don't ask, it's a long story, so Bertram from an alternate universe has essentially come to get revenge with a plot to travel the Multiverse and build his army to destroy Stewie's Universe. I can't allow a universe to exist without me when I return, I'm going to destroy your Universe completely, see you soon Stewie, this is bad with a multidimensional army, you'll have no problem destroying our universe, who knows what it will bring back here, so Brian and Stewie decide that they are going to stop Bertram's plot. tracking his movement and following him through the Multiverse and thus emerges a classic Family Guy adventure that spans seven alternate universes level 1 the Greek Universe specifically the universe of Greek college fraternities the problem is that Brian and Stewie are not supposed to be Here the Multiverse's remote control malfunctioned and they didn't properly track Bertram, so they employ the help of Mort Goldman, who offers to repair their device if they help his nerdy fraternity throw a better party, regardless of the fact that He's like 50 years old, dude, what the fuck why are you here?

You are so old. Where is your wife? Go home to your

family

, friend, after barrel sailing. now I have all night to dread the sex that will probably make me chicken out Mort delayed his end of the deal by fixing the remote control and Brian and Stewie went to level two of the Amish Universe there they find Bertram commissioning the townspeople to build He's a giant killer robot in exchange for seeds of fast growing trees. He also instructs them to kill Brian and Stewie on the spot before escaping. However, it probably wasn't the best choice to commission the Amish for this job because while they can be quite expert.

In the carpentry it seems that weapons of mass destruction are not his forte. Enter level 3 of the Disabled Universe where enemies use AK-47s as crutches. It turns out that Joe Swanson is the leader in these parts and he is rallying all the inhabitants against Stewie and Brian, no. doubt after having spoken to Bertram, who I must say is making very questionable decisions about which universes to build his army in, but he's just a baby, so I'll call him a little lazy after going through the hospital where they meet Tron of the episode without Meals on Wheels and thus follows a boss fight with projectile wheelchair users and exploding short buses.

Subtle I know after defeating Tripletron and leaving Joe crying in pain for help. We are heading to level 4 of the Evil Universe. What does that mean? It means that this universe. contains the evil counterpart of everyone and by everyone it refers to two people, the evil Mayo West and the evil Stewie, there is also the evil monkey, but he was always evil, that's why his name in the show is evil monkey, even the evil Stewie was already Family Guy Cannon, so he's really the only new one. The evil counterpart we'll meet here is the evil West, who agreed to send Bertram nuclear cat launches for seemingly no reason other than he's evil, of course, Brian and Stewie can't let that deal go through, so they They fight their way through swarms of generic army soldiers before confronting the evil Mayo West, who is inexplicably being helped by the evil Stewie, what a dog he has in this fight.

I have no idea other than he's evil. It could have been cool to see Stewie and evil Stewie have an interaction here, but alas. just kill him, he doesn't even get an ending cutscene, the last we see of him is the icon next to his health bar, why was he here after defeating the evil Mayor West? He submitted a proposal that I am considering applying for. governor in the next election and there's another mayor standing in my way I need you to assassinate him he's a fucking cheeseburger, is this guy serious? it's absolutely level four part two assassinate Mayhem gets Brian and Stewie to the site of the next takeover of the mayor's motorcade mcchees uncovers almost all of his security equipment and then arrives at a strategic point with a sniper rifle at the ready, probably You may have already figured it out at this point, but yes, it's a reference to JFKand in fact, it's not even the original, it's just shot by shot.

Recreation of the joke from the episode of the road to the Multiverse that joke is not in bad taste, is it? Oh, who cares? It's a cheeseburger. He is now sure that Bertram would not receive the nukes from him. The duo heads to their next local level 5, the Pirate Universe where they are. immediately captured by Long John Peter's crew, who take their remote control and throw them into the brig, no matter how they let that happen when they had enough weaponry between them for mutually assured destruction, but now they would have to escape their cell and get out. . all their stuff back and that's exactly what they did after annoying one of the gods so much that he opened his cell to beat them up, they ran out and confronted the entire crew armed only with a broken bottle, then they took their weapons and they headed up. to the deck where they shoot down neighboring ships before confronting Long John Peter himself, defeating him, retrieving their remote control, and proceeding to level six.

Santa's Workshop Universe In this universe people only order Christmas gifts online, so Santa is of no use now that he's open. He sets up his factory to make anything for the highest bidder. I guess Bertram is using it to make weapons for his army. Well, come on, I'm dreaming of a red Christmas. Okay, you only get one weapon per line. Okay, and the lines should be better than that, so Brian and Stewie. They proceed to fight their way through hordes of Santa's mutated elves as they go up to the factory and into his office, where he says anyway, I'm a bad guy now so I'll have to kill you and then try to kill them, Brian and Stewie. he takes out his eight reindeer, causing the sleigh to crash, and then Stewie drops a television on Santa to finish the job.

Foreigner, yes, he looks at that twice. I actually missed this particular scene while playing due to an altercation I had with a fly. I was sweating before Jesus Christ The fly got into my throat oh level seven the alien chicken universe wow, now they're really scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren't they? Ryan Bertram is going to try to use these alien chickens against us, like after roasting some chicken? and sailing on the mothership they arrive at the control room where a giant chicken is laying eggs and for some reason has Peter trapped in its nest.

The reason is plot convenience, but we'll get to that later, so Brian and Stewie defeat the queen hen by opening the door. Fortunately, the steam vent was placed right below her and then Peter was released. They believe, based on no evidence whatsoever, that Bertram is probably on his way back to his Universe now, but there's a problem. Ernie the giant chicken, but apparently not, that giant has emerged and he has emerged. revenge, this is a bad time, although Brian and Stewie must hurry to prevent Bertram from destroying his universe, who could face Peter? What are you doing here?

What a convenient level 8 chicken fight. Brian and Stewie teleport back to their own universe and meet. at Quahog Airport where Peter and Ernie entered the portal with them and crashed through the ceiling, don't ask why they wouldn't have returned at the same time as Ryan and Stewie, it was for the cool entrance, Peter and Ernie then continue on. to have fun with one of his celebrities, but it continues with slightly long chicken fights that end with Peter slamming Ernie into a jet engine and then walking off into the sunset satisfied that the chicken is no longer a threat or is at level eight. two saving the universe Stewie, look oh my god, my closet, we're too late, he's doing it.

Bertram is really going to destroy our universe. I don't understand how we went everywhere. It turns out that Bertram had been leading them on a wild goose chase. all this time while his assistant Gus was gathering his real army, an army composed entirely of bertrams from alternate universes and a T-Rex, hey guys, I'm Gus the assistant and thus concludes Gus' only appearance in the Family Guy franchise so soon like this bomb. It's close enough to your house boom everything you know will be burst the games are over Stewie it's time to die Ryan and Stewie Battle Bear trip the T-Rex and try to stop it from reaching their house while a non-stop attack from other bertrams attacks from the ground, of course, the duo finally defeat the dinosaur and have Bertram at gunpoint.

Oh sorry mate the return flight has been cancelled, okay the line was good but if you're going to do that you need to hit your target on the first shot but overall. better, much better, you're learning Brian and Stewie, then feed Bertram to his dinosaur before shooting him dead Brian Stewie, you're alive, yes we're saved, oh I'm so happy you two are okay, I found a coin, guys, I'm a hero too and that's it, the story exists purely as an excuse to put the player in different environments, not that they made many of them, anyway, the evil universe could have been a lot more, but at the same time final the only thing we can indicate this universe. is evil is this unique poster for an evil series, they even abandoned the evil aesthetic when it came to killing Mayor McGee.

Remember that that took place in the same universe and why the hell were the sorority girls there, better yet, why the hell was the mayor macho that they still decided to go ahead with the public appearance even though three quarters of their security team and an attack helicopter were eliminated in the lead-up and while we're on the topic of things that don't make sense, here are five more and one why Bertram doesn't care that there's a universe without him? Wouldn't there be an infinite number of them? They would even be infinite universes where he would have also killed Stewie in the 15th century.

Bertram recruited bertrams from different universes to fight in his army knowing some. he would die and therefore create more universes without him in them and isn't that the only reason he's doing this in the first place? Why bother explaining his grand plan at the beginning only to make the change at the end? He could have done it. He gathered his army in secret and then showed up unannounced to Stewie, exhausted and unprepared, for an easy dub. Isn't Stewie a genius? He built the Multiverse remote control himself, so why did he need more to fix it? he used tools, he only used his hands like his Inspector Gadget Five, why didn't Brian and Stewie kill Bartram when they saw him talking to the Amish?

I mean, he was there, but okay, sure the plot has never been one of Family Guy's strong points. They've always relied more on jokes and gags, so how would that translate into the game? Good evening Quahog, I'm Tom Tucker, can a woman really be mayor or will she just menstruate all over the city? Stay with us, it's not a lie, this is the first line heard throughout the game and it doesn't get any better than that. Listen well. I am not responsible for anything that is said in this game. Well, I'm just playing, so if they say something strange, it wasn't me.

Hey, you heard the man. I am simply a passive observer. If you have any complaints about the material you are about to witness, please forward them to the official Steam page for Family Guy Back in the Multiverse. I'm angry, but not because I am. I'm gay, I'm angry, but not because he's gay. Get those cables. I'm angry, but not because he's gay. Okay, we've heard the phrase. Maybe you're gay. I can't have babies anymore, so fill me up, guys, Lois, please. relax, Kenny, did you guys finish a c-section? Scott overseas, now to be fair to Anthony and Mike, they then wrote some pretty high rated episodes of the show, so let's consider the writing in this game, growing pains, and move on to the fourth and possibly most damning game trope. typical licensing, bad gameplay with games like these, the development philosophy tends to be IP first, gameplay second, and usually the genre of the game ends up being whatever seems easiest to produce or Whatever the most popular gaming trend at the time, Shaquille O'Neal's licensed game ended up being a 2D fighter because 2D fighters were all the rage in the '90s, although for a basketball legend it didn't make sense when a game was design first with an IP. mentality, the game often ends up feeling like an afterthought, for some reason this game is a shooting game and yet the shooting is horrible, look at this fast Scorpio, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait , the first time you see that, sit up for some reason, this game tries to do that. stealth and yet he doesn't understand the basics of stealth mechanics, well, you guys know I love stealth games, so, you know, this is what I'm interested in, this place is packed with security, what the fuck, They saw me immediately, he saw me immediately for some reason. this game gives you a health bar and ways to regenerate your health and yet there is no penalty for dying enemies, they don't respawn when you die and the bosses don't even reset, dude what am I supposed to do when it does that?

What am I supposed to do when he does that? So when you die, you don't restart the box, you just continue from where you were. Oh, how was this game so easy? The biggest challenge I had was trying to keep my controller from disconnecting. I'm on my PS4 controller so the cable is a little fiddly so that's going to happen no no don't do this come on stop yeah stop relax besides that the enemies are just boring to fight with you. Shoot them with your powerful weapons until they disappear, that's all. I cleared an entire area just by smashing Circle and not even looking at my screen, but of course, don't take my word for it, let's get some balanced opinions.

Greg Miller. Do you think the game itself was fun? It is very boring. Sorry, it's very basic, and as if that wasn't bad enough, this game had the nerve to suffer from frame drops. This is a PS2 looking game running on a PS3, where are those? frames of the most interesting things in this game, gameplay wise, they come in the last three levels first, there is a platforming section in the alien chicken universe that actually wasn't bad, makes me wish the game had focused more platforming than combat, second the chicken fight was actually, it's a good concept, I mean it was basically a completely different game, but with some polish, this could have been a decent 199 minigame instead of being included in a 60 release, yes this game costs 60 bucks but also a quick side note on the chicken fight, I really should have balanced it better what combo and look how little damage that did is amazing.

The third interesting thing this game does comes in the final level and I use the word interesting very liberally because this is something the game should have done from the beginning. The Flex to kill me is what just happened now, oh they actually restored the boss's health upon death, it actually does something now, no way, it's like the developers suddenly realized that's how it is in the end how games are supposed to work during the last 15 minutes. They were the only part of this game that was remotely challenging and they ended up overdoing it in the end.

I can't believe dying is actually a consequence. Whoa, whoa, all my health in one go, dude, they didn't balance this out at all. Damn, this is the most acute difficulty, Spike, I've ever seen in a game. What the hell does this even mean? In fact, I had to think while playing this part, which is more than what will be said during the rest of the game, okay, you have to be. I'm kidding. I mean, to be honest, it will be like a job. I'm literally walking in a straight line. Can you believe this? It was supposed to be a challenge.

Can you believe that since the game itself is not rewarding, the game is trying to reward? you have bonuses at the end of each level useful and capable cinematics unlocked I think I want to see the cinematics I can't believe that chickens in space concept Arnold oh my god guys we unlocked the concept art we did it guys wow this is incredible. Wow look at this guys oh my god it's amazing you can't even stop at the art so when a licensed game has bad presentation, bad writing and bad gameplay the only thing you can really fall back on is to the license. which brings us to the fifth trope of typical license game references galore, this is where the phrase "this is for the fans" comes from, at least you'll be able to point at the screen and say hello member, remember the multiverse theory , remember. evil Stewie, remember how Mayor West had a foreign cat launcher, oh they did it, they did it to some mega fans of the original IP, this will do, just include as many references as possible, no matter how well it's done fit the context, it is better than yours.

Damn hello league and after this anyone who doesn't enjoy the game just shouldn'tbe a true fan because a true fan would have gotten it first. One of the best things about this game is all the little references to the show, the story. It's a lot of fun, and while it may not be the best material, it's still Family Guy and any true fan will love the story. The jokes, the little hidden references, no, no, some people love this game so much that there was even a petition to bring it back. to Steam, from which it was delisted probably due to Activision not considering it worth renewing the license, but since they say one man's

trash

is another man's treasure and, like a treasure, I think this one should be buried deep underground.

Family Guy Back in the Multiverse is the ultimate licensed gaming experience, but that doesn't mean licensed games have to be bad. There have always been examples of good licensed games, even ones based on American animated comedies, but these all took a few tries to get right, so I have no doubt. that you can make a good Family Guy game, but whether this happens or not, it will all come down to one thing: Vision, what was the summary of this game, like who said, you know what we should do? and then this was the answer, like who.

Today we are seeing many more attempts to bring video game IPS to traditional media like film and television. Don't get me wrong, this has been happening for as long as licensed games have been created, but the frequency with which seeing this happen this way definitely seems to be increasing and with varying degrees of success, but either way, whether it takes an IP to or from a video game, quality work must always begin with a vision that the purpose of creating the thing cannot. It's simply cashing in on a popular property and nothing sums up why Family Guy Back in the Multiverse failed.

More than this final line of the game, well Bry, we did it, we stopped Bertram and everyone is safe, yes, but couldn't other Bertrams keep coming? Back from different universes, what I mean, they could, but I guess we'll have to wait and see how much money it makes. This game generated zero dollars and thus Bertram was never seen again in the end.