Family Guy

(2k Games for PS2)
by Mike Delano

There was really no reason to think that the Family Guy video game would be anything but a moderate to severe failure, along the lines of the hordes of other TV or movie-to-game conversions that serve as ephemeral curiosity pieces for the gaming public (24, The Simpsons, etc.). You’d think that despite all of the crap the gaming world has shoveled on other media (the Resident Evil films, the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon, Uwe Boll), those older, wiser forms of entertainment would know better than to send their hits over to other mediums just to watch them flounder and die. But they don’t, and that’s why we have The Sopranos: Road to Respect.

Somehow, Family Guy manages to buck the trend, offering up a nearly perfect encapsulation of the show in game form. This isn’t to say the game is a towering achievement, but it’s a surprisingly entertaining, fast-paced game that’s perfectly suited for a breeze-through rental for experienced gamers, while remaining very accessible to non-gamer fans of the show. The control is wonky at times, and controlling some characters through the frequently hilarious scenarios are much more fun than others, but as a plug-and-play crowd-pleaser, only Sneak King gives it a run for its money.
(www.2kgames.com)