Title: The Addams Family (NA/JP)
Release Date: March 1992
Developer/Publisher: Ocean
So before we finish up the last game for March 1992, we are going to do the four USA developed releases, which due to the staggered and unplanned releases in the United States' retailors, don't have specific release dates, but just the release month. And, per usual, the US developed games aren't that good. We are, arguably, going to play the best of the four with this entrant.
Background
The Addam's Family is an exploration heavy platformer developed by Ocean. The Addam's Family is a licensed game based off of the 1991 popular film...
...which in turn is based off the sitcom from the 1960s...
...which in turn is based off Charles Addam's New Yorker cartoon...
The titular Addams are a horror themed "American" family, and an odd collection of weirdos. You have Gomez, the lothario retired lawyer who shas a lust for life and is passionately in love with his wife, Morticia. Morticia is a tall, pale, and detached from emotions in an aristocratic sense, but has a deep love for her family (she keeps carnivorous man-eating plants as a hobby). They have two children, Wednesday and Pugsley; Wednesday is a quiet borderline sociopathic little girl with a macabre sense of humor, and Pugsley, who is arguably the most normal though he is an extra destructive in his boyhood exuberance. Rounding out the family is Lurch, the tall Frankenstein-esque butler, Uncle Fester, the strange Igor-esque brother to Gomez who is a torture enthusiast and general masochist, Grandma, an old witch/mother of Morticia, and finally Thing, who is a disembodied hand.
The movie that this game is based on was relatively popular and garnered one direct sequel. It starred the late-great Raul Julia as Gomez, Angelica Huston as Morticia, Christina Ricci as Wednesday, and Christopher Lloyd as Fester. It centers on a group of con-artists trying to convince Gomez that one of their compatriots is actually Uncle Fester, who was lost at sea for years; ironically, this stooge actually happens to be Fester. They search the estate looking for the treasure, and eventually resort to holding the family hostage until the family fortune is handed over. There is a lot of comedy, some fencing action, some good gags, and an MC Hammer title song. Overall, a decent and enjoyable comedy from the 90s that retains a lot of its charm.
The game is tangentially related to the film. You play as Gomez, and your family has gone missing! You need to navigate your way around the house and surrounding estate in order to defeat the monsters and villains (one of which kind of looks like one of the conmen?) who have taken your family hostage.
The game itself was developed by Ocean, a European game developer known for licensed games and Arcade ports, though they did develop the really weird platformer Mr Nutz!
Gameplay
The game begins with Gomez in front of the manor, and you are free to explore any part of the manor in any order (with very few exceptions). There are is the manor itself, which has several wings like the Greenhouse and the Kitchens, and then the surrounding grounds. Each of these areas leads to specific stages or dungeons, which can be quite long. Darted throughout the maps are upgrades of various kinds, some permanent some temporary, and bosses for you to find and fight. This game is very much a rudimentary metroidvania in its style.
The first thing you are going to want to do is hunt down specific bosses, such as the bird at the old tree or the snowman in the freezer, as these bosses will reward you will permanent life upgrades. Old Gomez starts with just two hits available, and it is easy to lose them quickly! In fact, even with health upgrades this game is pretty difficult. There are some reasons for this: Gomez always sits in the middle of the screen and moves fairly quickly, which means that you don't have much warning before and enemy is in your path; it is very easy to make quick mistakes in this game. Also, Gomez doesn't have much of a defensive vocabulary; unless you pick up a weapon, Gomez can only jump on his enemies (and some are immune to that). Luckily there are rapiers and flying hats which shoot fireballs which make this a little easier. As well, Gomez has a very high jump that is very fast, and his controls are very sensitive to input when Gomez is in the air; Gomez has no realistic momentum, but instead all player input.
The difficulty is exacerbated by some pretty punishing level design. The game and many of its dungeons are very maze like, and there is no clear indication of where to go to find the next family member. This means that you are going to be wandering around and beating your head against walls and levels trying to figure out where to go. Some branches within dungeons will lead nowhere, and some seemingly important areas will actually be dead ends. As well, some of the platforming sections are really tortuous and do not play well with Gomez's movement. For a guy with some serious ups, many dungeons are tight and cramped, leading to many parts where Gomez bumps his head on a low ceiling and plummets into a lava pit. There is two really hair-pulling sections in the lava dungeon level where you have to do a series of coyote-time jumps (meaning jumping right as you are going off a ledge) in order to make it up to the next level. There is a bunch of sections where you have to jump off enemies in order to reach next ledges or clear gaps. Even worse, the game really doesn't have great checkpointing, with long rooms that seemingly go on for minutes and minutes. If you die, you go back to the beginning of that portion of the house.
The bosses, luckily, are pretty simple. They will mostly just move or hop around, maybe throw some projectiles, and generally are the easier parts of the game. Even the final boss, "The Judge," is just a reskin of the earlier goblin boss. If you beat him, Morticia and the family is saved, and everyone lives happily ever after.
Luckily the game is generous with lives. The "Continue?" screen actually has a secret room that continually fills with lives, so you aren't really in danger of a game over if you know that is there. As well, there is a password selection so you can pick up where you left off in the game.
Music
The music is a nice homage to the Addams in general. It captures the feel of the "eerie" harpsichord sound.
Art and Ads
Just a single magazine ad (for the Sega game) sadly!
Final Verdict
For an Ocean game and a licensed, "US" developed (okay European) property, this game isn't terrible. I would have had a ton more patience for this game as a kid, though nowadays it is pretty vexing. Worth playing? Yes! Worth spending money on for a collection? Sure! It is a moderate level collectible on Amazon (about $20-25 dollars), so you aren't breaking the bank. I would wait for the price to drop five bucks before buying.
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