Bargain Bin Gaming- Episode Two: Family Guy’s Control Problems Limit the Fun

fgFamily Guy on the PSP currently runs for $19.99 at Gamestop, but can be found as frugally as $9.50 brand-new at Amazon.

Over the past decade, the uber-popular Fox adult cartoon, “Family Guy,” has become entrenched in pop culture, gaining a massive cult-following, spawning not only a made for DVD movie a few months ago, but also a video game. While few have voiced their grievances about the film, many will eventually become upset when they play the game on the PSP, finding a few major problems that have ruined a title that had a lot of potential.

Produced by 2K games and High Voltage Software, Family Guy on the PSP has some promise, but is basically a simple hybrid Stealth/Platformer/Beat-Em Up title that takes place in the Family Guy universe.

During the course of the game, players will have the opportunity to play as Stewie, Peter and Brian at various stages and will have to change their playing style with each character.

As Stewie, players must jump and shoot their way past their enemies [imagine a stripped-down version of Ratchet and Clank], while as Peter, gamers must beat up their opponents using strike moves and combos. Despite the fact that both of these elements of the game are enjoyable, they are some-what ruined by haphazard control, making it almost impossible to lock-on to enemies while playing with Stewie and even harder to perform combos with Peter, eventually making the game much harder than it actually is.

The only gameplay element of Family Guy that isn’t ruined by the control is the stealth action part that features Brian, but even that mode has its problems. For instance, the only reason why Brian’s part of the game plays smoother is because it doesn’t rely on the player to button-mash. Instead, since players have to crawl through shadows in order to advance through the game, it focuses primarily on the analog stick and moving Brian about. Despite the solid controls however, the patterns of the enemies are way too predictable, making Brian’s portion of the game pass by before the player can truly enjoy it.

However, on a positive note, the game features the voice talents of all the actors on the show and is completely engulfed in the Family Guy aura. The game also has some solid looking cut-scenes and in-game cel-shaded graphics that many fans of the show will without a doubt find freakin’ sweet.

For these reasons, hardcore Family Guy aficionados will feel like they’re playing through a one of a kind episode of the show and will find something to enjoy in this title. Everyone else however, will find the game’s sub-par control and lack of challenge too frustrating to endure.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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