“The Family Guy Video Game”
Take 2
PLAYSTATION 2
“Family Guy” is a show that has certainly been
better known for its superb comedic content than its decidedly
average look. To ardent fans of the show (myself included), this is
not a problem. We’ll take funny jokes over slick animation
any day.
It’s interesting, then, that in “The Family Guy
Video Game,” what stands out is not the “content”
(the writing and the plot), but the appearance. As perhaps
expected, the game resembles a 3-D version of the show ““ but
the sharp lines and bright colors of the world of “Family
Guy” make for a gaming experience that, at the very least, is
visually engaging.
But just because it’s fun to look at a perfect
reproduction of the streets of Quahog doesn’t mean it’s
fun to play through them. Repetitive, often frustrating gameplay
combines with story lines and dialogue (which should be a major
strength of this game) that feel rehashed and reheated from the
show to form a mostly disappointing final product.
“The Family Guy Video Game” lets the player take
control of three characters ““ Stewie, Brian and Peter ““
each of whom is working towards his own typically skewed goal.
Also, each has his own special ability: Stewie can shoot enemies
with his ray gun, Brian can don disguises and sneak around, and
Peter can unleash a number of hand-to-hand combat moves to dispatch
the townspeople of Quahog, who he thinks are being brainwashed by
TV’s Mr. Belvedere.
While controlling the funniest main characters is novel, their
respective storylines feel too similar to material that has been
featured on the show in the past, such as Stewie’s quest to
stop his half-brother Bertram from taking over the world (sound
familiar?). The content is adequate, but taking into account what
the writers of “Family Guy” are capable of producing,
it could be hilarious.
A story that relies too much on the show’s ideas
wouldn’t hurt the “Family Guy” video game so much
if the actual act of playing the game was more enjoyable ““ or
even a little enjoyable. Although some situations really put the
subversive spirit of the show to good interactive use ““ such
as Stewie’s periodic ability to use mind control on
characters such as Quagmire ““ the game ultimately gets bogged
down in frustrating side-scrolling conventions. It’s fun to
fight your way through the many incarnations of Lois in
Peter’s brain once, but not three or more times, which is
what it will take. A poorly constructed point-of-view system that
often doesn’t let the player see what’s coming next and
mind-boggling “rules” for dispatching enemies (why can
Peter kill an old lady with a punch but not a devastating
triple-kick?) don’t help things.
The “Family Guy” video game is not offensively bad;
it just could be a lot funnier, and more significantly, much more
fun to play. Sure, this game might not create any new fans of the
show, but remember ““ two years ago, we were living in a world
without “Family Guy.” If the existence of a mediocre
side-scroller is a necessary by-product of having new episodes of
the show, that’s fine with me. But when it comes to deciding
what to put in my PS2, I’ll stick with a “Family
Guy” DVD.