Family Guy Review





Developer: High Voltage Software Publisher: 2K Games
Release Date: October 17, 2006 Also On: PS2 and Xbox

Family Guy is a show that needs no introduction. Seth Macfarlane’s cartoon comedy is a phenomenon that has become a pop culture icon in recent years, especially with the show’s revival on Fox. Like any popular brand, the show’s been transformed into a video game. High Voltage Software and 2K Games have created a game that captures the essence of the show but forces a little bit of its humor into some very unimpressive gameplay experiences, ultimately resulting in a game that stands as a better collector’s item than anything else. As a huge fan of the series, this is extremely disappointing to me.

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Family Guy: Video Game! throws you into a long, drawn-out series of episodes from the show. You’ll recognize the PTV episode, the one where Stewie shrinks and goes inside Peter’s body, the one where Peter goes to Cheesie Charlie’s, and more. You’ll play as three of Macfarlane’s crazy characters, and all three of them are voiced by Macfarlane himself. You’ll sneak around avoiding capture and peeing on things as Brian the dog. You’ll zap pesky nurses and infiltrate the inside of Peter’s body as Stewie. As Peter, you’ll fight against armies of children, old people, and annoying mimes.

All three of the characters have a different genre attached to their experience. Stewie’s missions follow a basic action-platform style quite similar to Ratchet and Clank. Brian’s missions are a throwback to pattern-based stealth games. Lastly, Peter’s missions resemble any 2D side-scrolling action game from the early 90’s, like Final Fight and even River City Ransom. Unfortunately, none of the three genres that are used here are pulled off well. Stewie’s missions are annoying because they constantly have you firing your gun at idiotic characters and jumping around with a terrible feeling of perspective. Peter’s are repetitive to a point of being awful, and Brian’s are by far the worst. His pattern-based stealth missions require an immense amount of patience while you wait for annoying NPCs to walk a certain distance, allowing you to proceed. None of the different adventures are inventive in any way, it almost feels like High Voltage Software created a game with the Simpsons Arcade Game, Metal Gear, and Ratchet and Clank engines and did nothing to change the fundamentals or build on them.

The out-of-place, random events that Family Guy is known (and, by South Park, harassed) for are terribly represented in the game. It’s always at the same basic spot when a character stops and says a certain line, “This is kind of like the time I…,” and the scene is initiated. Each event is played out in a random and arbitrary mini-game, and none of the minis feel like they were made with effort. While they’re one of the funniest parts of the show, they’re one of the least memorable with the game.

It’s sad that Family Guy: Video Game! plays so badly, because everything else about the game excels. The crass humor from the show is completely intact, and fans of the show like myself that have every episode memorized will spot every in-joke and remark made by the excellently-voiced cast. Seriously, everything’s here–from popular and widely-known jokes like the monkey in Chris’s closet to the obscure stuff, like Meg’s birthday present of a horse that was forgotten about and left to turn into a skeleton in Peter’s closet. Supporting characters like Quagmire and Cleveland make an appearance and I will admit to laughing out loud when I saw Joe Swanson’s desk at the precinct. I won’t ruin too much of the game’s clever humor that wasn’t present in the show, but playing the game and getting through the awful gameplay just to see and hear some of the stuff here is quite a lot to ask.

Visually, Family Guy: Video Game! is appropriate and I wouldn’t have asked for it to be created in any other way. It’s done with cel-shading techniques that cast the characters in colorful, inky 3D and the environments in a rather basic but fitting 2D style. The visual effects aren’t very impressive and the animation is, well, pretty awful. While running around with Stewie, it actually appears that the only parts on his body that move are his arms and legs. His head and body remain mostly immobile. Another technical issue that bugged me was the ever-present music; it’s terrible and takes away from the otherwise perfect audio element of Family Guy: Video Game!.

Overall, Family Guy: Video Game! is a bad gameplay experience, and it’s unfortunate, really, because one of television’s best series is so awfully represented in a virtual form. High Voltage Software should be ashamed of the lack of gameplay quality but 2K Games should be happy that Family Guy fans will probably invest time into the game anyway, simply because of the source material. It’s a game that could easily be beaten in a sitting or two, so don’t invest the money unless you plan on keeping the game as a collector’s item or hating it like the entire family hates Meg.

Graphics: 7
Sound: 8
Gameplay: 3.5
Creativity: 5
Replay Value/Game Length: 3
Final: 4.8
Written by Cliff Review Guide

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