10 Hugely Popular Licenses Video Games Can't Get Right

10. Family Guy

Family Guy doesn't exactly sound like a great license to build video games around but developers have tried. Some might say they were always doomed to fail, but when the hit and miss success of series' like The Simpsons and South Park in the video game world is examined, there is clear potential for a good Family Guy game. Sadly, the two bigger-budget releases so far wasted that potential massively. The first game, aptly titled 'Family Guy Video Game!', is a frustratingly simple release which spans several genres at once. For example, Peter's levels are beat-em-up's aping the likes of Streets Of Rage, while Brian's are stealth sections where he must avoid detection (as well as avoid peeing on everything... yeah, that's right). The humour is there (although all it does is recycle jokes from the TV series) but even the most diehard of fans would struggle to enjoy this. Still, at least it's not as bad as Heavy Iron Studios' Back To The Multiverse, a generic third-person shooter in a Family Guy disguise. Again, the game is full of in-jokes, but in video game format the humour simply doesn't work as well. The third-person shooter genre might not be a great fit for the license but when compared with The Simpsons' ability to be recreated in just about every mould (Hit and Run, for example, was an unexpected blast), it's disappointing that Family Guy lacks a similar versatility. The art style, humour and fan service is all present in the Family Guy video game offerings; to be successful, developers simply need to offer something that's engaging and fun to play.