Real Game Reviews

The Family Guy series is definitely a controversial one. Fox actually wanted to cancel the show but after so many fans turned in to buy around 5 million copies of a DVD box set including the second season, the series was put back in the program. Now we have the chance to play Family Guy – The Game, available on PS2, XBOX and PSP. I tested the game on PS2, finished it and had a lot of time in the process. The big plus of the game is that the same writers and actors are involved as in the animated series. This basically means that the game is as funny as the show. A big minus is that this action-adventure game is not brilliant and can only be categorized as a medium gaming experience.

To put it all simple, if you watched Family Guy or are a fan of the series you will definitely be entertained and will catch the subtle jokes in the game. Strictly talking about game play we can say that the gamer will find himself/herself in three different situations, playing three different characters: Stewie, Peter and Brian. There are three storylines that are intercalated and three different games basically. Brian is accused of something (I won’t say what) and you will have to hide a lot and do “stealth” missions. Stewie fights his evil half-twin brother and will shoot a lot with his special gun together with using a hypnotize gun. One funny thing here, regarding the hypnotize gun is that you get control of Death at one point in the game and that mission is very funny. Brian is also on a quest but his game will actually be a fighting game in which you have to kick the hell out of everybody including children, old people and police officers (all combined with a special opponent at the end). The game is not bad but not good either. None of the three different game play types above are done well. For instance Stewie has a special double jump feature and a floating one that are very hard to control at some points. Peter’s fighting scenes also tend to become repetitive.

We can find a lot of Family Guy type jokes related to sex, religion, disabilities, toilet humor and race. Many characters from the series have also been included like Glen Quagmire, the evil monkey or Clevland Brown. Even Mr. Belvedere has his part in this game. The player will also be able to play some mini games as the plots evolve and are put in under the form of flashbacks.
Family Guy the Game does not take advantage of any graphical facilities the gaming platforms have to offer but they don’t need to either. Fans of the television show will like the game but others will probably not.