The closest approximation of Family Guy Video Game! (PlayStation 2) is what Beavis and Butthead was for the old Super Nintendo. Both games successfully capture the look and feel of their mother show, boldly sacrificing things like graphics and taste in the process. Both games also feature relatively simple platform gameplay and a hope that raunchy and laugh-out-loud comedy will make up for it. Unfortunately, players can only subsist on non-sequitur sexual innuendo for so long before the joke begins to wear thin.
The game features three separate but intertwined storylines. In one, Stewie tries to destroy his evil brother; in another, Peter battles through old people and children to defeat the nefarious Mr. Belvedere. The third sees Brian sneaking around a police department to collect evidence about the real father of Seabreeze's child. There is no doubt this is one funny story-most of Stewie's dialogue makes you double over in your chair.
Voiced by the cast of the show and made in close collaboration with Seth MacFarlane's creative team, the game is sure to hook loyal Quahog fans. That said, die-hard gamers will really start to feel the lack of engrossing gameplay within the first hour.
Scenes are cell-shaded, but there is little else to remind you you're holding a controller with more than three buttons. The game features the kind of side-scrolling platform action that was the bread and butter of the 16-bit systems. The mid-game humor and sheer Machiavellian measures required to pass missions (at one point you control Quagmire's mind to make him chase nurses into the paths of laser beams) breathe some life into the action and make the Peter and Stewie missions enjoyable. Unfortunately, the final straw for many gamers will be the dreadfully uninspired Brian missions. Not even grossly off-color prison shower humor can make up for the fact that tip-toeing around a police station is just plain boring.
Family Guy never pretends to be a stellar gaming experience, which is good because it doesn't try to be one either. It is aimed, appropriately, at fans and members of the 17-and-up crowd who don't need complex gameplay to enjoy themselves. In that light, the game is a clear success and worthy of at least a rent. Just don't be surprised if some jokes are more gut-wrenchingly tactless than Stephen Miller's... everything.
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