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It's a mixed bag of comedy and repetative nature

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: October 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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.

Damn you Belvedere!!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: October 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

When I first saw that this was on sale I had to have it.
I am pleased over all. The voices are all there, the action is fun, my only complaint is that the Brian levels are all sneaking around and if you don't get it right you end up in re-play hell. The mini games are pretty entertaining, many of them are easy to fail because you are too busy laughing to figure out what to do. Once you get a hang of it they are really fun. The game did get just a little repetitive towards the end but over all I liked it. I do suggest this game even if it is kind of short its a lot of fun.

Not much on re-play value, you get to play the mini games but I would have liked a few more extras, maybe a fighting game like the one they had on line.

If your not a fan or don't know the show too well then rent it.
It is worth Checking out.

Remember the time I played that really bad video game?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: November 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Family Guy is a show that needs no introduction. Seth Macfarlane's cartoon comedy is a phenomenon that has become a pop culture icon in recent years, especially with the show's revival on Fox. Like any popular brand, the show's been transformed into a video game. High Voltage Software and 2K Games have created a game that captures the essence of the show but forces a little bit of its humor into some very unimpressive gameplay experiences, ultimately resulting in a game that stands as a better collector's item than anything else. As a huge fan of the series, this is extremely disappointing to me.

Family Guy: Video Game! throws you into a long, drawn-out series of episodes from the show. You'll recognize the PTV episode, the one where Stewie shrinks and goes inside Peter's body, the one where Peter goes to Cheesie Charlie's, and more. You'll play as three of Macfarlane's crazy characters, and all three of them are voiced by Macfarlane himself. You'll sneak around avoiding capture and peeing on things as Brian the dog. You'll zap pesky nurses and infiltrate the inside of Peter's body as Stewie. As Peter, you'll fight against armies of children, old people, and annoying mimes.

All three of the characters have a different genre attached to their experience. Stewie's missions follow a basic action-platform style quite similar to Ratchet & Clank. Brian's missions are a throwback to pattern-based stealth games. Lastly, Peter's missions resemble any 2D side-scrolling action game from the early 90's, like Final Fight and even River City Ransom. Unfortunately, none of the three genres that are used here are pulled off well. Stewie's missions are annoying because they constantly have you firing your gun at idiotic characters and jumping around with a terrible feeling of perspective. Peter's are repetitive to a point of being awful, and Brian's are by far the worst. His pattern-based stealth missions require an immense amount of patience while you wait for annoying NPCs to walk a certain distance, allowing you to proceed. None of the different adventures are inventive in any way, it almost feels like High Voltage Software created a game with the Simpsons Arcade Game, Metal Gear, and Ratchet & Clank engines and did nothing to change the fundamentals or build on them.

The out-of-place, random events that Family Guy is known (and, by South Park, harassed) for are terribly represented in the game. It's always at the same basic spot when a character stops and says a certain line, "This is kind of like the time I...," and the scene is initiated. Each event is played out in a random and arbitrary mini-game, and none of the minis feel like they were made with effort. While they're one of the funniest parts of the show, they're one of the least memorable with the game.

It's sad that Family Guy: Video Game! plays so badly, because everything else about the game excels. The crass humor from the show is completely intact, and fans of the show like myself that have every episode memorized will spot every in-joke and remark made by the excellently-voiced cast. Seriously, everything's here-from popular and widely-known jokes like the monkey in Chris's closet to the obscure stuff, like Meg's birthday present of a horse that was forgotten about and left to turn into a skeleton in Peter's closet. Supporting characters like Quagmire and Cleveland make an appearance and I will admit to laughing out loud when I saw Joe Swanson's desk at the precinct. I won't ruin too much of the game's clever humor that wasn't present in the show, but playing the game and getting through the awful gameplay just to see and hear some of the stuff here is quite a lot to ask.

Visually, Family Guy: Video Game! is appropriate and I wouldn't have asked for it to be created in any other way. It's done with cel-shading techniques that cast the characters in colorful, inky 3D and the environments in a rather basic but fitting 2D style. The visual effects aren't very impressive and the animation is, well, pretty awful. While running around with Stewie, it actually appears that the only parts on his body that move are his arms and legs. His head and body remain mostly immobile. Another technical issue that bugged me was the ever-present music; it's terrible and takes away from the otherwise perfect audio element of Family Guy: Video Game!.

Overall, Family Guy: Video Game! is a bad gameplay experience, and it's unfortunate, really, because one of television's best series is so awfully represented in a virtual form. High Voltage Software should be ashamed of the lack of gameplay quality but 2K Games should be happy that Family Guy fans will probably invest time into the game anyway, simply because of the source material. It's a game that could easily be beaten in a sitting or two, so don't invest the money unless you plan on keeping the game as a collector's item or hating it like the entire family hates Meg.

Not worth the cost

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game may be some what entertaining, but Brian's parts are really hard to get past unless you look them up on the internet. I beat this game in five days, and you don't get anything special once you beat it. You would be better off renting this game than paying $30 for something you will only play for a week.

Family Guy Game Is Fabulous

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is funny and loads of fun! Just like the series, it's packed full of silly antics by the characters. It's a little gross and naughty, but not over the top gross or naughty. It's definitely worth buying!

Worst Game Ever

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is awful. Terrible graphics, Boring gameplay and 4 catch phrases per scene that are repeated over and over until your ears bleed.

Not as good as the show

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

All the game tries to do is make the same jokes the show has and put a littel game play in the middel

Fun To Play, But Frustrasting Game Design

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Fans of the television show will get a kick out of what amounts to an extra full bonus episode of Family Guy, with voices by some actual cast members and cool animation, great jokes and sight gags, and some of those random, non-sequitirs that the show is known for. I do feel that the game is fun enough to recommend, but ONLY if you can find the game for $5.00 (five dollars) or less. Otherwise, you're better off putting that money towards DVDs of the show itself. The problem is that because of the strange thought process the game's designers put into it, you may quickly grow too frustrated to care about getting to the end, to see all of the parts of the bonus episode. (You do get to see segments as you complete pairs of levels, but that's pretty much the only reward for completing the game...) My version is on the original XBox gaming system.

The premise of the game is okay, if not slightly disappointing that while you see many of the show's characters, most don't speak, and you only can play as three of them... But on the bright side, those three are Peter, Stewie, and Brian. You don't get to choose when, but you get to play as all three, as the game is laid out where the levels alternate with a different character. All of Stewie's levels are intellectually based involving strategy, ray guns, minor puzzles, Peter's levels are fun fighting/brawlfests, and Brian's are all stealth missions, where you have to hide and sneak around. While Peter's and Stewie missions are a blast, the problem is that Brian's levels are the hardest and not remotely as fun as Peter's or Stewie's to warrant being that difficult. Peter and Stewie's levels are the type you hope will never end and they feel like they go by too soon, whereas Brian's levels feel like a punishment, or a deep level of purgatory. And this is where the trouble with the game really becomes transparent.

If you get stuck and/or bored with one of Brian's levels (which 9 out of 10 of you are sure to do), you're out of luck, as you'll need to complete his level before you can go back to a Peter or Stewie level. If you die, even when you've collected most of what Brian has to collect, you still have to start the level again and do the same exact things over and over again. Unlike Peter and Stewie's levels where you can move in many different directions to accomplish the mission of the level, Brian's levels pretty much require you to follow the same path you've done already, if you have to restart that level. So unless you have a severe case of OCD, or are a major fan of masochism, this repetition may leave you wanting to turn off the game; never to return.

This also leads to the second major problem: There are no game save features and no multi-player options, not even the ability to create different player profiles so that friends or family can try without messing up your progress. This is completely ridiculous for a game based on a show with such a strong, religious fanbase. No more than one player at a time?!? On the surface, this seems not to be a big deal... until you play the game and get locked into Brian Purgatory. Say you have enough of that nonsense, decide to take a break, turn off the game and return, when you come back, the game WILL remember where you left off, BUT if you or anyone else should start up a NEW game before you've beat the game... your previous game and all the headaches you went through will be WRITTEN OVER, ERASED, GONE FOR GOOD. Otherwise, if like me, you have more than one Family Guy fanatic in the house... you either are going to have to take turns on levels with the same controller, or one of you is never going to get to play until the other one has finished every single level of the game.

I got about halfway through the game, in a couple of days, before I threw in the towel. I may take another crack at it, just because I really liked the Peter and Stewie levels, would love to see the whole episode, and would love to make it to the Peter vs. The Chicken level... but again, the Brian parts and the setup of this game are maddening. I would think that designers of a game based on a beloved Animated Fox show would have learned lessons from the even more frustrating Futurama video game that was released some years ago. Family Guy The Video Game could have been, as Peter would say, "Frickin' Sweet!," but instead the game designers made some really poor, lazy choices in basic game design that make it difficult even for a die-hard Family Guy fan like myself to laugh more than curse the screen. This is a game that had the potential to be enjoyed by groups or pairs of people at one time, but instead, they've made it frustrating for even one person to get through.

Let's hope another, improved Family Guy game is released. But unless that happens, it's not a good idea to spend more than a few dollars on this one, because let's face it... even if you make it through to the end... you're not likely to want to play it again and again, nor will people watching you play be likely to want to give it a try.

Family Rocks and so does the game! =)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: June 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is the best game! if u like family u frikin love this so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Family Guy

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: January 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Game is ok. Nice to see some of our favorite cartoon characters on a video game.

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