The Addams Family

The Game

The Addams Family is a licensed platformer where you play as Gomez Addams trying to find and rescue the other members of the family from the confines of the Addams Family home and grounds. It does nothing new, it's very likely a typical 90s licensed cash grab, but I loved it as a kid, I loved it when I replayed it, and it's not broken, unfair, or promising anything it isn't.

Developed and published by Ocean Software, who we last saw all the way back in 90 Minutes European Prime Goal, this is one of the many licenses they got hold of, and one they released on pretty much anything with a microchip in it. This game saw a release on: NES, Game Boy, SNES, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Gear and Master System. They really wanted this out there as much as was humanly possible.

Gameplay

Like I said, this doesn't do anything new. It's a 2D platformer, you move from one end of the level to the other, jumping on enemies to kill them, you collect a couple of power ups to make that killing a little easier, there's a sword you can stab with, and some golf balls that act in a similar way to Mario's fire flower power up. There's also a fez with a propellor on the top that lets Gomez fly, and some shoes that make him run extra fast.

The game starts out in the Addams Family mansion, which is your hub level, and the levels can be tackled in any order, you open a door and head in to levels like the greenhouse, the gallery, the inside of a tree, underground, there's plenty of variety and the game does offer some challenge without being too frustrating.

As you play you can level up your health from 2 hearts to 5 which gives you a good feeling of progression, and really helps if you've been struggling on a certain level for a while. Go away, beat a different level, then come back with some more health and try again.

One thing I have always found a slight negative to the game is the slightly slippery controls. Gomez has this weird momentum thing where he doesn't stop on a dime like in most platformers, it's like the ice level in a Mario game, except there's ice in this game too and it's even worse. It's not a game breaker by any stretch, it just takes a bit of getting used to.

Graphics

The graphics are fine, they're far from great, especially after ActRaiser 2, but they're clear and bright with a good variety of enemies and backgrounds, animation is basic, but there are some nice moments like Gomez tapping his foot when you take a while to move, very Sonic like. Gomez is maybe a bit too "cute" the sprite is quite small and low detail, but then when you go through the house there are some nice paintings of the family that are much more detailed. It's a colourful game with graphics that do what they need to.

Sound and Music

The sound in this game is iconic to me personally, the cheeps and chirps of the creatures in the levels, the sound effect when you bounce on a monster's head, the noise Gomez makes when he gets hurt, the theme of this review is "doesn't do anything special, but it just works" and that's no exception here.

The music however is genuinely good, a really nice rendition of the Addams Family theme, then the level themes are all well put together, but the soundtrack is quite short, with a few tracks that are only a few seconds long. The meat of the soundtrack is good, but there are tracks that are repeated with echo or wind over it depending on where you are in the game. It's a cool thing to give the song something slightly different whether you're inside, outside or underground, but takes up a lot of real estate on the soundtrack. What's there is great though.

The People

I jumped straight to the music on this one, music and sound were done by Jonathan Dunn who has a very long credit list. He started in the late 80s doing sound and music for a lot of home computer games, and started with Ocean straight away with Platoon on the Commodore 64, he did the music for Ocean's Robocop, Rambo, Batman, Total Recall, Terminator 2, a load of Simpsons home computer releases, before moving onto console games like Jurassic Park for NES and SNES, and even did music for the Virtual Boy release of Waterworld. The guy was obviously good at converting already existing music onto games consoles.

Game design and graphics were covered by Warren Lancashire who eventually worked on Lego City Undercover, Lego Jurassic World, and Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens among other things.

And that's about all of note on this one.

Box art

This is one of those ones that, while it would attract my attention if I saw it, it is also incredibly lazy with it just being the movie poster and nothing else. This is typical of Ocean licensed games though so it's no surprise, nothing amazing, but nothing offensive to the eyes either.

The back is fairly simple as well, 4 screenshots seems to be the usual standard, and they've picked fairly good ones here, and sadly once again, no bullet points, and this time the writing doesn't even mention anything gameplay related at all, it's all story, which is a shame.

Overall I give this box a rating of - Accurate. Technically it's accurate because it doesn't promise anything it doesn't deliver, but only because it doesn't promise anything. Booooo.

The Press

GamePro:

Addams Family requires the same quick ducking, precision jumping, and hop and bop skills as the Mario carts. Great graphics, sinisterly authentic sounds, and a monstrous level of challenge add up to a package that will make you happy…completely. If you're impatiently awaiting the next Mario adventure, The Addams Family will make perfect house guests in the meantime.

20/20

N-Force:

You've seen the film, bought the T-shirt, now play the SNES version. It's totally mega!

90/100

Mean Machines:

Nothing really new on offer, but the platform action is tough and enjoyable and fans of the genre should be in their element.

89/100

Super Pro:

One for the Mario nuts with similar sorts of problems and traps. It's quite pleasant to look at and listen to, but it's the sheer size and volume of levels that makes The Addams Family so interesting!

84/100

Electronic Gaming Monthly:

The game play is good but seems slippery at times. Things could be better.

25/40