Family Guy Video Game!

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Family Guy Video Game! is an action-adventure video game based on the animated sitcom Family Guy. It was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PlayStation Portable. It was developed by High Voltage Software and published by 2K Games.

Family Guy Video Game!

"Hey Lois, remember that time we were in a mediocre video game?" (insert cutaway gag)

Protagonist(s):	Stewie Griffin Brian Griffin Peter Griffin
Genre(s):	Action-adventure
Platform(s):	PlayStation 2 Xbox PlayStation Portable
Release Date:	PlayStation 2, Xbox NA: October 2, 2006 EU: October 26, 2006 AU: November 3, 2006 PlayStation Portable NA: October 17, 2006 EU: December 1, 2006
Developer(s):	High Voltage Software
Publisher(s):	2K Games
Country:	United States
Series:	Family Guy
Successor:	Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse

Bad Qualities

This game was probably made just to cash in with the success of the The Simpsons and Futurama video games that were released prior, but it technically fails at doing so since it does not share the charm of these games, and is instead rehashing these games as a whole.
The game's title makes no sense. It should have been called either "Family Guy: The Video Game" or "The Family Guy Video Game".
The graphics look ugly. They look like something from consoles older than the PS2, not something from the consoles the game was on. Many other video games at the time, such as Super Smash Bros. Melee, Star Fox Adventures, Wario World, the GameCube Mario Party games, Luigi's Mansion, Soul Calibur II, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu looked a whole lot better.
- For comparative purposes, the Futurama game, which has similar gameplay and is also based on a popular adult-oriented show, released on the same systems in 2003 had better lighting, shading, animations, character models, and writing than this game made in 2006.
The cutaway gag minigames are nothing more than button-mashing.
A lot of the dialogue is recycled from the show itself.
False advertising: The game cover is very misleading because it looks like you can play as the entire Griffin family. But in the game, you can only play three characters: Peter, Stewie, and Brian. Lois, Chris, and Meg ONLY appear five or fewer times in the game.
None of the gameplay styles are developed enough to be fun for more than a few minutes. They get boring and/or frustrating. Plus, they have a fair amount of problems and offer very little fun.
Some of Stewie's sliding levels are so horrible for many reasons. You don't have control over your speed in these sections and your level of control is quite small, allowing you to only turn a tad bit to either side. The real catch here is that when you hit a hard surface, you'll bounce off and change direction. Since your turning radius is extremely wide, it's not too uncommon for you to mimic a pinball or simply get turned around without an easy way of flipping a U-turn.
The story is completely disjointed and many of the game's events and triggers are completely nonsensical.
Peter's beat 'em up stages are very repetitive, and incredibly tedious. You constantly battle the same three enemies over and over again. Peter doesn't even have any interesting moves; all he has are punches and kicks. By the time you've reached his third area, it's worn very, very thin. Even so, some characters can only be hurt by punches, and others by kicks, forcing you to switch your attacks simply so that you have a reason to use them. It doesn't help at all that the built-in lock-on system is extremely flawed, making it hard to finish a combo at times. Some enemies don't seem to have health as much as a weakness to a certain move that will finish them off, like an uppercut, but since it can sometimes be hard to finish a combo when characters are moving around, you'll just have to repeatedly pummel them to death.
Brian's stealth stages are frustrating due to the lack of a checkpoint system. If you get caught, you have to start the whole stage all over again. They follow very strict paths and work in patterns. A secondary element in Brian's levels is avoiding his natural urge to urinate on things. Should the player remain near certain objects for too long (potted plants, fire hydrants, etc.), Brian will be forced to pee on them, exposing himself to those around him.
Lengthy loading times.
Framerate chunkiness.
No level selected. This means if you want to replay a level you have to play the whole game from the start.

Good Qualities

Stewie's platforming stages are tolerable and the best stages in the game so far.
The cast from the show reprise their roles.
Has the occasional good joke from the show.
The soundtrack is passable and can be catchy at times.
This game is the first time Family Guy was depicted in 3D.
Combines different gameplay genres, such as shoot-'em-up (Stewie), stealth, (Brian), and beat-'em-up (Peter), which would have made this game interesting but it was unfortunately poorly executed.
Ernie the Giant Chicken is the final boss.
Even though it has nothing to do with the game itself, it did get rated M for Mature which is understandable considering what the series often gets away with.

Reception

Family Guy Video Game! received mixed reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox version 56.89% and 53/100. the PlayStation 2 version 51.06% and 50/100 and the PlayStation Portable version 50.80% and 51/100.

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