Details on Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse

A few weeks back, Activision fully announced their next “game based on a TV show”, Family Guy: Back to The Multiverse. All we knew then was that it was coming out this fall on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 – but we’ve just received some new details about the game and who’s in charge of making it.

It’s set as a third-person, couch co-op game that’s based on the theory of alternate realities explored in the similarly named Family Guy TV episode. Though it casts Brian and Stewie as the main players in the story, the game will feature tons of familiar faces from the show itself.

“It doesn’t pick up from where the episode ended, but it continues the idea of Brian and Stewie travelling in the multiverse,” Activision Producer Andy Owen said. “The game features a completely original story that sends the guys back through the Multiverse on a mission to stop Bertram.”

If you’re familiar with the show, you’re likely aware that Bertram, essentially Stewie’s evil half-brother, is long gone. This occurred in the original narrative written by long-time show writers Mike Desilets and Anthony Blasucci.

“He died in the show, but since there are infinite multiverses, he could come into the Griffin family’s universe from one of the others,” Owen also mentioned. “Bertram is a great villain and foil for Stewie. We saw a good opportunity to use him as an evil force in the multiverse.”

“We’ve focused less on random cutaways and more on maximizing the humor within an individual level.For instance, in the Amish level you’re going to see Amish versions of your characters along with a number of other gags tailored for each level.

One of the nice things about working with a license is that someone has gone and decided what it looks like, how characters act and so forth.

On the flip side of that, it can be challenging to try and match up exactly like that. One of the challenges we’ve had is making sure characters look correct in 3-D since the show is primarily done in 2-D.

There’s a lot of checking and confirming that has to be done, but it’s really just different than an original IP.”

Given you desire something other than the game’s story to play through, the game will have co-op challenges specifically designed for certain characters (apparently Peter and Death will be a duo), as well as competitive multiplayer levels, costumes, and unlockable characters throughout progression of the game.

The game is being crafted by Heavy Iron Studios, the developer who has worked on plenty of licensed games in the past like The Incredibles, Up, Scooby-Doo: Night of 100 Frights, and three distinct Spongebob Squarepants titles.

I kid you not, Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom was an alright game.

As surprising as this may occur to some, I’m genuinely interested in this game. Not counting the undoubtedly “definitely not great” game that was Family Guy on the past console generation, this will be the Griffin family’s first true console adventure — here’s to hoping they nail it.

[via IGN]