We may not have a whole lot to go on here but thanks to these images sent our way by  tipster, we have learned about a new game concept to be receiving a location test right now. As your read on the headline before heading over here, that is appearance of Family Guy into arcades once again, courtesy of US-based developer Team Play Inc. Team Play has dabbled with video games in the past although in recent times most of their focus has been on videmption pieces like Launch Code and Fishbowl Frenzy or their Fun Stop photo booth series.
Family Guy Bowling
As always, what you see below may not be the final design for the game so don’t make any final judgments yet 😉
The last (and until now, only) time that the Fox cartoon series Family Guy graced the arcade scene was through the release of Stern Pinball’s Family Guy back in 2007. Being a comedy cartoon, it isn’t always the first license that comes to mind when translating to a video arcade game but like The Simpsons, developers can find ways. The Simpsons has also been turned into a pinball machine a couple of times, it has enjoyed different redemption pieces, there is the Konami beat ’em up that most people think of when Simpsons and arcades are mentioned together and finally there was The Simpson’s Bowling game released back in 2000.
As these images are all we know about the game for the moment, we can assume that it will be similar to The Simpson’s Bowling, just enjoying newer technology and graphics. It uses a trackball as most video bowling games do, plus some buttons that are likely for different options like changing your character’s angle. There are several LED backlit arrows on the control panel but it’s impossible to tell for now whether or not those serve a purpose beyond aesthetics. The tipster didn’t state where these were taken or when; it is a bar of some kind by the ads on the wall and of course being placed next to something like Powerputt Live helps whittle that down.
I’ve lost track of an email I had with Team Play to get a comment on this so if someone from TP reads this, we’d love to know more about it 🙂
We also don’t get much more detail from this compressed, somewhat small picture and the game scene on the screen appears to be the same; as with any location test, chances are that there will be changes made to both the hardware and software in the event that this launches to arcades. One thing I imagine a release candidate would have is a marquee. The pedestal base looks nice, with tasteful LED lighting along the edges, particularly of those bowling pins.
Apart from Incredible Technologies’ Silver Strike series this is the only other video arcade bowling game that we’ll have seen in a while. Namco’s Rockin’ Bowl-A-Rama comes to mind but that was way back in 2005.
If it is on track for a full release then we should see more about it at an upcoming amusement event such as the AAMA Gala or the IAAPA 2017 trade show.
