Family Guy

Thursday 17 August 2006
If you think Family Guy is a peculiar cartoon, wait until you see what the Griffin family get up to in the game. Baby Stewie's battling his unborn brother Bertram (see series three, when Stewie goes inside dad Peter's body Inner Space-style) as both try to take over the world.

Meanwhile, Brian the dog's been wrongly imprisoned for impregnating Mr Pewterschmidt's greyhound Seabreeze and Peter thinks he's starring in a videogame after taking a bang on the head from a satellite dish. Oh, the irony.

Granted, it was never going to be groundbreaking, and Family Guy sticks to the tried-and-tested TV tie-in method of combining platforming, adventuring and tongue-in-cheek humour - like Futurama. But the real thrill comes from the feeling that you're controlling - even directing - an episode of the cartoon yourself.

The stories of the main characters will intertwine, like when that satellite dish is knocked from the roof onto Peter's head during a laser fight between Bertram and Stewie.

You'll also meet more than 50 residents of the town of Quahog, including Asian news reporter Tricia Takanawa, Mort the pharmacist and even Doug, the talking zit that once possessed Chris in series four.

And in keeping with the TV show's humour, each of the characters will respond with a quip when you interact with them. God will even smite you dead if you dare to interrupt Him while he's chatting up a lady.

Comic flashbacks are used regularly in the TV show so the videogame features them as minigames. For instance, when Brian the dog suddenly remembers he left a porn film in the garden (as you do), the game spins off at a tangent as the shameful mutt tries to hide the evidence.

He buries the tape in a Bemani-style sequence, piling on the dirt by tapping buttons. It's a nice touch, and hopefully just the tip of the iceberg. Our fingers are crossed for an epic battle with the giant chicken that regularly scraps with Peter.