The Addams Family was developed and published by Ocean Software in 1992 for the SNES. It is based on the 1991 movie of the same name. It would later be ported to the Sega Mega Drive, Amiga and Atari ST. Versions also exists for other consoles such as the NES, but these ones are not direct ports, instead being original games.
This is a game I have many memories with, since I used to borrow it a lot from my brother when I was young. I used to love this game back then, and I wasn’t even that much into The Addams Family otherwise, but something about this game just appealed to me. I never finished it back then though. So let’s see how I like it today.
I haven’t actually seen the movie so I have no idea how well it follows it, but what has happened is that “The Nasty Judge” has kidnapped your family members and it is now up to Gomez to save them.
The Addams Family is gameplay-wise a typical side-scrolling platformer. However, there are some unique elements to it. It is actually a bit non-linear. While you start out outside the family’s house, you can basically go anywhere you wish. Either continue outside the house until you find an underground tunnel, or go inside the house, and choose one of several doors there. Each door takes you to a new area, and you have to travel through most of them to rescue your family members. To rescue a family member you must find the area boss, usually located at the end of an area. Rescuing all family members except Morticia unlocks the final door. Some areas don’t contain any family member, but there are still an additional three bosses to fight. These aren’t mandatory, but defeating them will increase your total health by one hit point each. You start out with two hearts, but you can expand your health meter to five hearts.
The level design is quite interesting at times, I especially love the level taking place inside of the stove, and the level in the portrait gallery. Each level is broken up into several short rooms, and each room has its own name displayed at the top of the screen, reminding me of some old-school computer games. Some of those names are puns and quite funny. Speaking of funny, there is a boss where you literally have to bounce on Uncle Fester’s head to jump on the boss. There are also several hidden areas you can find throughout the game.
Gomez main attack is jumping on enemies, just like Mario. The hit detections is all over the place however. Sometimes you take a hit for what feels like no reason. Although the bad hit detection sometimes works in your favour as there were several times when I could swear I would take a hit but didn’t.
Gomez can also find power-ups. Either a sword, which he can use to stab enemies in front of or above him. There are also tennis balls which acts similar to Mario’s fireballs. I personally didn’t find these power-ups all that useful, but they do give you an extra hit point. Other power-ups include the shoe, which makes you much faster although it also makes you harder to control, a propeller hat which gives you the ability to fly for a period of time, as well as a power-up that makes you invincible for some time. There is also money to be found, finding 25, 50 and 75 will increase your health if you don’t have full health at the moment, and finding 100 gives you an extra life.
The controls might be this game’s biggest flaw, they are very slippery and this combined with the bad hit detection can lead to some frustrating moments. Especially considering that there are some parts of the game that require pixel perfect precision when you jump. However, I did notice that I managed to get used to the controls after playing for a while, so I wouldn’t exactly say that they are ruining the game completely.
As for the difficulty, the game surely has some frustrating and difficult moments, especially considering the hit detections and pixel perfect precision required at times. However, this game is extremely generous in the checkpoint department. Most of the time you start out very close to where you died, and you never start further back than at the beginning of a room. Unless you would get a game over, that is, which takes you back to the house. I believe there are unlimited continues though, and there’s also a hidden area in the stairwell where you can find around 25 extra lives, which should be enough to take experienced platform players through this game. This game is generally quite generous with extra lives, and I never went below 20 myself.
You also get a password after each boss defeated, and the passwords are very short, thankfully.
Graphically, the game looks decent, even if it is nothing special. The portraits on the wall on the portrait gallery look very impressive though. Sound wise, there are some annoying sound effects when you get hit that literally sounds like a fart. Musically, it is pretty good. It might not be a top soundtrack for the SNES, but it certainly isn’t bad, and the rendition of the Addams Family theme sounds really good. That said, I do have some really nostalgic feelings about this soundtrack.
Overall, The Addams Family is a good game, although a bit generic at times. There are some cool levels, but the rest of the levels are a bit bland. The controls are not the best and will take some time before you get used to them. Otherwise, there isn’t too much bad to say about it, but there’s also not too much good to say about it either. What makes this game stand out is that you can play it in any order you like, so you never have to feel stuck on a specific level. It’s not exactly Metroid, but it does make the game more open ended.
Is it worth Playing?
This is a tough question. It is a good platformer, but there isn’t anything special about it. There are tons of better platformers for the SNES, and I don’t really think the fact that you can play it in any order you like is a big selling-point. But it is at least a fun game if you decide to play through it, and if you are a fan of The Addams Family, there isn’t really any reason you should avoid this game. It has its flaws, but it also got its charm.
Final score:
7/10
Screenshots via MobyGames: http://www.mobygames.com
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