Game: DVD Boxset: Price: £39.99 Players: 1 Widescreen: Yes 60Hz: No Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes Xbox Live-enabled: No Family Guy is a classic animated sitcom, but one which never took over in the UK the same way it did in the States, probably because it's one that can't be shown before the watershed without being censored so much it's just not worth bothering with because a lot of the adult humour will be lost. It's also a shame it didn't take off because the UK public have really only grown up with one animated family, The Simpsons, who were brilliant for the first nine seasons and then it not so much tailed off but completely nosedived, resulting in so many laugh-free episodes since then that it's impossible to count them all (well, without referring to, say epguides.com and counting them all individually...), and even when BBC2 tried putting the season 3 on from 10pm on a Saturday night, the ratings didn't quite take off, so seasons 4 and 5 have aired on BBC3 only, and late at night, and bunched together to get them over and done with. Oh well. Still, the show, which was cancelled after season 3 but eventually got the much-needed re-commission with 2005's Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, which was basically three episodes sewn together but at least it put the show back on the air. The Griffin family is made up of Peter - once a worker in a toy factory and the loveable oaf, Lois - the sassy mother of the family holding everything together, and quite a hot MILF to boot, Chris - the idiotic son who has trouble grasping reality in most situations he comes across and occasionally freaks out due to an evil monkey hiding in his wardrobe (something which rears its head early on in this game), Meg - the geeky daughter who craves a high school hunk as a boyfriend but worries that they'll never see past her glasses and take her seriously, Brian - the dog, but not just an average dog, one that talks and can appreciate fine wine and fine arts but still does all the disgusting things you expect a canine to do, and Stewie - the baby boy, but don't let that fool you as he's got many a trick up his sleeve (some of which you wonder is playing out in his head as opposed to in 'real life') as he attempts world domination.

The basic premise of Family Guy: The Video Game is that you'll play as Stewie, Brian or Peter - all trying to take over the world in their own inimitable way, interchanging between them as you go, but while this will come as a sleight early on in the review, the tasks amount to little more than dodging this, shooting at that, hiding out of sight of him until he passes and collecting some of those in the same pseudo-3D environment the characters inhabit onscreen. Okay, let's start with the positives about this Family Guy game. It features all the original actors doing their voices, the graphics look like the cartoon series and it features many amusing posters around the different locations and one-liners from the characters across all 22 levels. There are also nice touches like when Death pays a visit to the hospital and laughs as he kills someone or, when Brian the dog is sat waiting in hiding for someone to pass, he will either scratch himself or lick his genitals, not to mention the fruity goings-on in the police shower room. You can also inadvertently get to play as other characters such as Lois and Death and there are unlockable mini games to enjoy.

However, while you can complete these little interactive games (called a 'Non-Sequitur Mini-Game) along the way inbetween levels to access extra stuff during the game, at one point, due to the fact that I got caught in the police shower room, as Brian, since it came just after playing one of these I had to go back to the start of the level and had to repeat the task which became a damn irritation as I kept mis-timing when and where I needed to move to and on and on it went. Family Guy: The Video Game is animated so comes across as a children's game, yet it's full of adult language and humour so isn't suitable for children, hence it falls between two stools. In addition, it's so predictable and repetitive in terms of gameplay that the enjoyment soon wanes and is either too easy or just plain frustrating. The gameplay is nothing new from any game that's gone before and there's nothing in it that makes me think "*That's* the reason I'll keep playing the Family Guy game!" Yes, you get the original voices, but, in conclusion, you're probably better off getting just the complete DVD boxset (link above) unless you're a die-hard fan of the show and absolutely *must* have a twiddle of your joystick to control the various people in this game.

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2006.