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| Review of the Month | Reviewed
5/13//07 |
| **Note software version 10.0 as of this review** | Reviewer
Ratings |
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Family Guy |
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Category |
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Art
Backglass |
8.5 |
7 |
7 |
6.5 |
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Art
Playfield |
8 |
9 |
8.5 |
6 |
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Sound |
8.5 |
9.5 |
9 |
8 |
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Playfield
|
9 |
8.5 |
8.5 |
8 |
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Rules |
8.5 |
9 |
10 |
8 |
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Longevity |
8 |
8.5 |
10 |
7.75 |
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Total |
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Stern, 2007 Difficulty 2/3 |
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Buzz Art-Backglass 7 Pluses: Pat is back! Or to be more accurate Louis is gone! Thats right, the king of playfield designs was left to what he does best, and the software was left to the Stern crew to do what they do best! Family guy is without a doubt the funniest game ever made! Great playfield design and decent ruleset (Though it could have been a little better), good playfield art and tough to achieve wizard mode highlight this machine. Stewie pinball is a very clever toy which even has its own quotes (My favorite is hitting the peter target which is an out-of-control shot and having him say "Uuut.... uhhht....UHHHHT!" seeminly knowing you are flailing to keep the ball in play at that point). The game has ALOT of strategy. Knowing what modes and multiballs to stack together is crucial. Stewie Multiball is in itself a mode worthy of any wizard mode with intense music and jackpot sound calls to get your blood pumping. Playing both playfields at the same time is a rush. The music remains true to the show. All the custom speech Stern crammed into this game was amazing! The playfield has some great flow and its share of tough shots. The Beer can to monkey jackpot shot being one of the more satisfying in recent memory. Sperm Multiball wizard mode has a truly original begining. Lard and Fart multiballs are decent though not spectacular. Though the lard jackpot flasher show is pretty impressive. TV Wizard mode is a blast and about as intense as you can get! DONT CHOKE! The ultimate combination: Lard, Fart, Crazy Chris, Sexy Party, Happy Hour!
Minuses: Beer can modes for the most part are pretty worthless. The award selections should be player controlled rather than from the jets. The spinner as well caps out way too soon at 5k. I really like drop targets but for whatever reason the FART targets on this game dont do it for me. They are at a rather odd angle which seems to make them drop from random balls out of the jets or rebounds off the Stewie target more easily than if they were shot directly. As usual it seems mandatory for designers to not put any effort into the bottom left of the playfield. Can we please in the near future see somthing other than a standup or saucer? (Makes me yearn to play some Roadshow!) No 3 way combo? Come on! Stewie super jackpot is rather worthless after massive effort to collect. Also during Stewie Multiball it would be nice to have a warning when the lower playfield ball save times out as often I am concentrating on the mini playfield and don't realize the timer ran out. The Peter target seems pretty random to collect. Seems like you hit the bumper quite a few times before getting credit. Scoring... everything gets harder and harder to get as the game goes on but the scoring remains the same. It's not unusual to rack up 200 mil within the first 10 minutes. Then another 20-30 minutes to reach 400 mil. Would be nice to see the multiballs at least have a jackpot boost as the game progresses. Chicken Fight. Enough said.
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The Worm Art-Backglass 7 A BIG THANK YOU to the hard work and efforts of Lonnie Ropp. Family Guy is *BY FAR* the most comical pinball machine ever produced. NEVER have I seen people laughing as much while playing pinball, and that goes for people laughing and having a good time WATCHING someone else play while they wait. The quotes used in FG are top-notch and I can honestly say that I *still* hear speech calls that make me laugh til this day. ~Perfect Job~ on the scripting Lonnie!!! Lets be clear on one thing...Pat Lawlor ~NEVER~ lost the magic... To be very brief, I have never met a Pat Lawlor playfield I didn’t like. OTOH, I have met many Pat Lawlor games that I thought were not FUN due to the rules and themes that were chosen. IMHO, Pat Lawlor is the most creative plafield designer of *All Time* and Family Guy just reinforces my fondness of Pat and his designs. I simply would like to say that I hope Pat continues to design playfields for Stern, but will leave the rules to the guys who “know” fun rule sets. I have said some bad things about Pat in the past, but I hope everyone realizes it wasn’t a personal attack, but me just venting my frustrations on games he has done that have AWESOME playfields with _LACKLUSTER_ rules, and more importantly, horrible ~THEMES~. I am looking forward to the next Pat Lawlor design. Collect Beers: YAWN. Thanks for -almost- nothing. Quote and countdown is cool at least... “Here’s your freaking jackpot!” Giggity Giggity: A little more fun, but just because of the quotes. Happy Hour: If I ever get this when it matters it will be a Christmas day miracle! Has great potential, but I pretty much ignore the power it COULD HAVE possessed. Oh, if you get it going before you start your TV wiz mode it does double that MASSIVE 1M award to 2M. Remember WHEN: I am trying to forget... 3M if you collect this right away. Worth it if lit at an easy shot. DON’T SHOOT MEG!!! LARD Multiball: Now we’re talking! Great music at the start of this one. Lit shots are Jackpots and don’t forget to hit Meg(WHILE BALL SAVER IS ON!), to light Pirate target, to get your add-a-ball! ***T.V. MODES***:
Super Griffins: A fun mode where you hit each character to collect the award. Go for everyone *except* Meg. Chicken Fight: (IMHO: Should have been “GIVE ME MY MONEY!”) Once a video mode, this was switched to a normal playing mode. My least favorite of the 5, it is simple and uneventful. Just go about your normal business and this one will usually complete itself. These 3 modes MAKE you want to play them out!!! Good old Boys: Gotta love the “Dukes of Hazzard” sound clip when you shoot the ramp and the scoop quotes once you start it. The DMD annimations are great as well. Sexy Party: Really cool to see more and more ladies cross the dmd with the more shots you make. Great Benny Hill tribute! Ipecac Contest: You havn’t played this mode until you stack it with a multiball, namely LARD and FART. Hearing the characters PUKE and FART at the same time makes me laugh every time. Some people think puking and farting are offensive sounds/actions and won’t let their kids play Family Guy, to those people I say.....Cork your kids ass and mouths cause they are gonna have to PUKE and FART sooner or later and we wouldn’t want that! Seriously though, Family Guy set on famil settings is a great game for the ENTIRE family. ***CRAZY Chris!*** ***FART Multiball***: ***STEWIE MULTIBALL*** ***TV WIZARD MODE*** **********SPERM ATTACK!!!********** TIPS and TRICKS for aspiring PINBALL WIZARDS: NEVER shoot Meg on purpose unless you are trying to light the pirate target for add-a-ball Learn to do tap passes on the Stewie playfield. While this is a difficult trick to master for non-wizards, make sure you learn it. It will make you a MASTER of the mini-playfield. Well, at least get you on your way... TV scoop kick-outs will determine how well you do. If you play a game with a good one, be prepared to dominate! Stack one of the 3 more lucrative modes, or Crazy Chris (CC), or *BOTH!!!* with Stewie Multiball (SMB) and watch your points go through the roof! ...of course, you need to have a good multiball while all this is going down ;-) Backhand the Lois ramp on the mini-pf, a regular shot is just a waste of time. When *NOT SPECIAL* is lit, start any multiball so you can collect your extra ball without losing your current one. Always keep TV modes running. The TVWM is far too lucrative to not try and get there as often as possible. Learn to flipper trap balls on the lower playfield WHILE playing the upper playfield. It takes MASSIVE SKILL, you got that in you arsenal tough guy? Learn to shoot the captive ball and TV scoop at the same time so you can spell P-I-N-B-A-L-L with as little risk as possible. Play the game, don’t let the game play you! If you complete all character jackpots during Stewie mb on the upper and lower playfield, if you are really desperate for the super jackpot and a flail master, (either during the mb or during the grace period) you can try a right side deflection off the beer can to try and collect it in a pinch or moment of panic. ***Instead of offering $200 for video footage of someone scoring 350M, why not be social -in the correct way- and GO TO A PINBALL SHOW/TOURNAMENT and watch some of us do it LIVE!!! What makes me want to lift the front end of the pinball machine and flip it over on end..... RANDOM beer can awards? It would be nice to have some 2X scoring when *I* want it, or not have some YUTZ beat me on a flail-fest-filled game just because he was lucky enough to have LARD multiball lit! Death post (between flippers) flashing while it is *NOT UP!* (head-butts glass out of frustration!) Spinners that DON”T SPIN!!! Some games have had issues with the spinner _NOT_ spinning and being able to clear the bracket it rests in. Design or assembley flaw? You gotta love when it takes 26 spinner shots to get 26 spins! I have reported this to STERN, so don’t think I decided to cry -all of a sudden- Insert colors have me baffled. I have no idea why some of the colors were chosen or why they used soo many clear inserts. Extra ball and jackpot inserts at the side captive ball are both clear? Huh? I would love to hear why this was done. Sterns Family Guy WILL be a part of my permanent collection. I like this game a lot and the play is AWESOME. The color schemes on the playfield are gorgeous. It really is one of their best playfields ever in both art and design! Family Guy is without question an “A” title game and will match up against any pinball machine ever made favorably. The humor, quotes, dots, artwork, rules, sounds, and presentation are all TOP NOTCH. Family Guy is an “INSTANT CLASSIC” !!! Pat Lawlor, Lonnie Ropp, Keith Johnson, Dwight Sullivan, and all of the Family Guy team did an excellent job! If you are a fan of the Family Guy tv show, I dn’t see how your gameroom could survive without this game!!! Why I won’t own this game... Thank you Stern !!! You guys are doing a great job !!!
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Rudy art backglass: 6.5 |
Drac Backglass:8.4 Playfield Art:7.9 Sound:8.7 Playfield:8.9 Rules:8.6 Longevity:8.2 Difficulty:1.1 Pluses:very nice EB shot, certainly not a gimme. TV Wizard Mode is a lot of fun and the rules force the player to play the TV modes to make it worth something. Pirate Target interacts well with various modes and multiballs. Having all aspects of the Mini-playfield to scale is a terrific touch (rather than Thing-sized flippers for example). Super-Wizard mode (SPERM ATTACK!) gives experienced players a continued challenge. As with Nascar, Pat continues his streak with another enjoyable Stern title (Keith Johnson's talents were a large factor in this as well). Minuses:Beer Can shot doesn't always register. Spinner is not sensitive enough. Similar to POTC (PARLAY), the game is not very drainy to begin with and yet there is the "raise death" bumper to make it even less drainly still.
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