The new American Dad! Apocalypse Now mobile game launched today, bringing with it a multi-layered RPG system and stand-alone story designed in collaboration with writers from the show to both iOS and Android mobile devices. American Dad! is the Emmy-nominated comedy series from 20th Century Fox Television that, despite having a solid following and a premise that is well-suited to game spin-offs, has never really broken into the scene in the way that many critics expected it would at the height of its popularity.
With American Dad!'s 14 years of experience behind it, however, American Dad! Apocalypse Now will look to lay the foundation for a solid, exciting gameplay experience set within the show's ridiculous universe. The town of Langley Falls hides a great deal of secrets in American Dad!, and that's not even including the fact that the Smiths, the family that the show follows the perspective of, are harboring an alien fugitive named Roger who somehow manages to fool those he interacts with into thinking he's human despite rarely managing to make himself actually look the part. As a premise, it's given the show a lot of breathing room for thematic concerns and helped keep it fresh after a long time on air, and developer MY.GAMES will be looking to bring that same flexibility to mobile devices.
American Dad! Apocalypse Now launched today on iOS and Android and will task players, in the role of Stan Smith, with rescuing the Smith family after they're kidnapped by aliens known as Collectors - no, not the ones from Mass Effect. Players will turn the iconic Smith household into their base of operations and clone Roger to build an army, gathering various objects around the Smith house to fend off invaders. These weapons will be comprised of traditional ones, like baseball bats, and some less conventional ones, such as raccoon wands and electric machine guns. Ivan Fedyanin, the head of Fast Forward Studio at MY.GAMES, commented on the game's launch:
"We're delighted to launch American Dad! Apocalypse Soon with the Fox team. Our goal was to capture the spirit of the series in a fun, accessible game, that combines what we love most about RPG and Strategy games. We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed making it!"
The gameplay involved in American Dad! Apocalypse Now seems like the right blend of the two genres to create a compelling, easy-to-play but fun-to-master set up, but mobile games have historically been tricky to predict. While there are obvious strong titles in the app store like Pokemon GO and Dragalia Lost, plenty of strong games have found it difficult to gain traction in the market.
It will be interesting to see where American Dad! Apocalypse Now lands, given its strong license and visually interesting aesthetic. The premise is novel, the game itself blends two popular genres, and it's going to have some of the classic American Dad! humor in it thanks to the collaboration with the writing team - American Dad! Apocalypse Now has a very real chance of being a sleeper mobile hit if things shake out well.