A clumsy cash-in that throws a whole lot of gameplay elements at you, only a few of which are fun.

User Rating: 6.8 | Family Guy PS2
Family Guy is the latest game based on a comedy cartoon to get the video game treatment, and while it doesn't reach the heights of The Simpsons: Hit and Run, it certainly does a lot better than Futurama's game adaptation. Developer High Voltage Software obviously tried to make this product as good as possible, but it feels as if somwhere along the line in the developing process, that they lost heart, and shipped the game off as an unfinished title at a budget price. While fans of the show will outdoubtedly lap this up like a cat does milk, but serious gamers may well just discard this one very easily.

There are three distinct gameplay elements of Family Guy, and each has very astute flaws. Sitting in the middle range are the Stewie levels, which follows the maniacal infant into an all out war against unborn evil twin Bertram. These levels are standard platforming fare, with Stewie constantly upgrading his ray gun, which uses a rather simple targeting system that doesn't encourage experimentation. Stewie handles like butter on a hot skillet, as the controls are very loose, but 2K and High Voltage have included many elevators for the jumping puzzles, so things don't get too tedious.

Peter Griffin's side-scrolling action levels, which reminded me a lot of Final Fight, are the pick of the bunch. While health power-ups are limited, and sometimes there are too enemies on screen that you can relatively deal with, these levels are so much fun it's almost criminal. The comedy of Peter bashing up the elderly and children is great.

Brian the Dog's stealth levels are simply awful, so bad that they hardly bear mentioning. With several hiding spots and stupid enemies, there is no fun to be had playing as Brian. You bump into enemies, they may not notice you for two or three seconds. Broken.

The humour of Family Guy is in this game in spades, but there is just not enough gameplay in it to make it a worthwhile purchase. At least they released it with a budget price tag.