Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Family Guy is one of the most talked about shows on television, hands down. It's gritty and crude humor has captivated millions, and has caused it to draw on contraversy and rivalry like no other. Every good show deserves a video game. The Simspons has received plenty, Futurama got a game, Southpark got a game. The list goes on and on. Unfortunately, like those games, Family Guy can just as easily be slapped with a "Fans only" label. Is Family Guy a good game? Well, yes and no. If you love the show, there's more gold here than you can imagine, and it does it far better than any other TV show gone video game has before. Where it suffers, is the gameplay itself.
Throughout the game you'll play as Peter, Brian, or Stewie. Each character has their own set of levels and their own story. All of which are interconnected. Each characters levels also play out far differently than any other characters. Stewie's level are platforming levels. Peter's levels are beat 'em up type levels (set up stirkingly similar to Final Fight) and Brian's levels are stealth levels. So you could say there's quite a variety here.
Stewie is once again plotting to take over the world. This time he's using Peter's satellite dish. Unfortunately Bertrand, his evil brother, is also planning to take over the world. Stewie will ultimately have to go after Bertrand. While this is happening, Peter suffers head trauma and finds himself in the hospital. When he comes to, he thinks Mr. Belvedere has kidnapped his family, and that everyone is out to get him, and now everyone is an enemy to Peter. Finally, Brian has been accused of getting Seabreeze pregnant by Lois's father, Carter Pewterschmidt. The stories eventually connect themselves, and come together.
If this all seems completely absurd and random to you, that's because it is. If you don't know certan things like who some of the characters I mentioned above are, it's because you don't watch the show enough. Trust me, fans of the show will be able to connect with the story entirely.
Let's get one thing out of the way. If you really are a fan of Family Guy, there should be no reason why you don't like the presentation of the game. Graphically it will definitely remind you of the show. It looks very similar to the show itself, and therefore really gives the player a feel for the show. Also, it's nice to see that the writers from the show have written the script for the game. This is obvious by the insane number of inside jokes that only Family Guy fans would understand. It's also obvious by the nature of the cutscenes in the game itself. All of them are filled with the crude, witty humor of the show. You won't find characters acting strangely out of character. Even better for the overall presentation, every voice actor from the show has signed up to do the game itself. Needless to say, the audio and voice work is top notch.
Simply put, outside of the gameplay it's like buying a full blown episode of the television show, and it's not so bad. It's funny, it's got it's inside jokes, and it has mini games whenever you come to a flashback moment. Whenever Peter says something like, "This is worse than the time I..." it means you'll have a chance to play a mini-game of that segment rather than watching it. It's pretty cool stuff.
As I said, however, it's the gameplay that begins to bog it down. Each character has their own set of levels to play through. Peter has brawling levels, Stewie platformers, and Brian stealth. In Peter's levels you'll basiscally go through the game in a Final Fight like fashion. It's even set up in 2D side scrolling fashion. You're job is to beat up anything and everything that moves. Each time you down an enemy they drop food that Peter can use to fill his snack meter up. When full he can unleash a devastating attack. It's fun, for a time, and there's a lot of different interaction among your foes, but after a while it gets mighty repetative. Peter doesn't have a huge vareity of ways to deal with his enemies. Also, the game is pretty difficult. You could be beating up one of your foes while he beats you up at the same time. Your health drops quite fast.
Stewie's missions are all platform based. As Stewie, you'll use your mind control gun to control certain characters. Whether you're manipulating Death to kill someone, or Quagmire to try to sweet talk women, there's plenty of it to be done. Stewie also has a lot of jumping, double jumping and puzzle solving to do throughout his game, but again, it feels bland at times. Stewie's game is still much more fun to play through than Peter's, however.
Brian's missions are certainly the least fun of the lot. He's all about stealth. You'll have to sneak your way through rooms and make sure you don't get spotted. Seems simple, right? Well, it can be. Although, it's hard to tell just when you're in the sight of some of your onlookers. It's not difficult, it's just very frustrating sometimes. Especially if you do happen to get spotted. You'll have to start over and listen to the objectives again. Brian's levels are the least amount of fun in the entire game, and they are probably the most repetative as well.
However, to the game's credit, the repetative nature of some of the levels keeps the game from having a steep learning curve. It's simple to grasp the concept of the game, and it can overall be very fun to play. The problem is that it gets recycled rather fast. The game can take an upwards of 10-15 hours to complete, and it becomes repetative fairly early on, and it doesn't throw in a large variety of things to do. For example, you'll hardly be faced with more difficult obstacles as the game goes on. Still, it's quite nice that you can just pick up the game and get into it without too much of a hassle at all. There's just not enough of it to go around.
To be fair, Family Guy is probably one of the best video games based off a TV show to ever hit the video game market. Simply because it actually IS the show to begin with. Even though the gameplay has it's sticky spots, the overall presentation makes this worth a buy to just about any and every Family Guy fan. So it really boils itself down to... what are you more of? A hardcore gamer or a Family Guy fan? If you're a bigger gamer than Family Guy fan, then it might not be worth it to shell out the money for this game, and instead might be better to pick up the DVD boxsets. If however, you're a huge Family Guy fan, this is more than worth the money for it's excellent presentation and dedication to the show alone.
The Good
+Let's be honest here, the presentation is absolutely fantastic. It's filled with all the witty dialogue of the show, provided by the writer's themselves with lines delivered by the voice actors themselves. Along those lines, the game looks close to the animation provided within the show itself. This one aspect alone deserves recognition. There are also plenty of inside jokes and references to the actual show itself. This one giant aspect alone warrents the game as a must buy to Family Guy fans.
The Bad
-Another aspect that we have to face. There's little vareity to the game whatsoever, and while it's overall presentation is fantastic, it's hard to say the gameplay will satisfy hardcore gamers who have already played several other games out there that execute its gameplay aspects better than Family Guy does
OVERALL:
It's because of this unusual aspect of the game that I give Family Guy three stars out of five. It's a hit or miss title. One glaring pro over one glaring con.
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Family GuyProduct Description: Family Guy lets you control the kind of over-the-top action you'd see in the popular cartoon. Play as the loveable Peter, the diabolical Stewie and the charismatic Brian. You'll take all three into a wild group of stories that intersect in typical Family Guy fashion.
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