The Addams Family (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Ocean's 1992 license-based platformer for the NES, The Addams Family.

Unlike Sunsoft’s Fester's Quest that was based on The Addams Family television show, Ocean’s platformer was a tie-in for the 1991 theatrical reimagining of the revered 60’s series. In an attempt to sweep the Addams' riches out from under them, the family lawyer Tully Alford has served an eviction notice and has captured the members of the family to prevent them from meddling with his plans.

To win the game, Gomez has to explore the mansion and its grounds, save his family from whatever predicaments they find themselves in, and collect a million dollars in order to unlock the vault where Tully and Fester are holding Morticia hostage.

Like in the SNES (   • The Addams Family (SNES) Playthrough - Nin...  ), Game Boy (   • The Addams Family (Game Boy) Playthrough -...  ), and TurboGrafx-CD (   • The Addams Family (TurboGrafx-CD) Playthrough  ) games, the mansion is an excellent backdrop for some spooky hop-and-bop action, and it does a nice job of providing the illusion of freeform nonlinearity, though certain areas only become accessible once you've found particular items or family members.

These progression gates are logical and easy to figure out. For instance, once Gomez rescues his hypothermic daughter Wednesday from the freezer and brings her to the furnace, she'll thaw and give Gomez a key as thanks. For any "puzzles" that might prove too difficult, you can check the manual, but since it spells everything out pretty clearly, you might want to avoid it if you like figuring everything out for yourself.

The graphics in The Addams Family are fun with the creepy, colorful backdrops and the bizarre enemy designs. Each area has a distinct appearance and most rooms have unique enemies to further sell the setting (a floating zombie couple dances through the air in the ballroom, skeletons lurk in the crypt, etc.). The close-up character portraits of the family members during conversations are hideous, but they do unintentionally underscore the game’s sense of humor. The sound is good, too, but it's repetitive. An excellent arrangement of the show’s theme song loops endlessly throughout most of the game, though a dungeon theme occasionally takes its place in areas like the crypt, the freezer, and the furnace.

Unfortunately, The Addams Family's gameplay is seriously flawed. Gomez’s platforming controls feel familiar and solid, but they're effectively countered by the faulty collision detection. Even when Gomez appears to land directly on top of an enemy’s head, he'll often fall directly through the enemy, and since Gomez doesn’t get any invincibility frames when absorbing a hit, he'll take massive damage in such instances. He also has a tendency to fall through ledges when making long jumps, and the swimming controls are a complete joke.

These issues are exacerbated by the game's punishing level designs. The roof, for example, is one of the biggest offenders. Once Granny has fixed the fog machine, Gomez can collect the final ingredient for Pugsley’s shrinking potion. In order to get to the fog machine, Gomez has to cross the roof of the mansion while avoiding falling tiles. Rather than just slightly hurting Gomez, being hit by a roofing tile will knock him off the roof into the garden, and so, to collect the fog, he’ll be forced to make his way back through the house to the roof to try again.

The developers clearly knew this was an issue since the manual recommends that you save Thing's invincibility power for this specific sequence. Other issues include unavoidable hazards (like making contact with the underside of floating platforms in the crypt), deadly objects that fall on Gomez without warning the instant he enters a room, and unmarked doors that lead to insta-kill spike traps.

It feels like a well-worn mantra at this point, but it must be said that nice graphics and subpar gameplay are par for the course with Ocean titles, and The Addams Family does nothing to break that mould. The Addams Family has a ton personality and charm, but like Gomez and Morticia, it’ll likely scare away most people away before they can ever become properly acquainted.

If you're like me and found yourself really wanting to like The Addams Family for the NES, do yourself a favor and check out the excellent Master System version of the game (   • The Addams Family (Master System) Playthro...  ). It addresses all of the NES version's shortcomings and significantly improves on the graphics. The soundtrack takes a big hit - that chirpy PSG chip was truly the Master System's Achilles' heel - but that's a very worthwhile compromise in this case.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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