Quest to Beat Every NES Game: #9 The Addams Family

Those arent inspired by Mario at all!

Title: The Addams Family - Pugsley's Scavanger Hunt
Year: 1993
Developer: Ocean
Publisher: Ocean
Genre: Platformer

Heres the second Addams Family game released at the end of the NES life span. I really think at this point a lot of game developers just stopped trying. Pugsleys Scavanger Hunt was a port of the SNES version, but at the same time...it wasnt. It took the name and levels, but used the game plot of the first Addams Family game, replacing Gomez with Pugsley. The result is just horrible.

Remember in the last review I criticized Oceans rendition of the Addams Family theme song? Well the title screen of Pugsleys Scavanger Hunt has a very nice, up beat 8 bit version (in my opinion) If you want your opinion of this game to stay any higher than this point, dont press start.

I thought something broke initially, a glitch perhaps, when the game started up. Pugsley was standing outside the mansion and...I couldnt hear any music! "No...the developers couldnt have..." I walked inside and..still no music! What gives? Did the composer for this game spend all his time making the opening music that he couldnt be bothered making any other songs? And whats with the annoying sound effects. It sounds like im playing an old Game and Watch game. At one point I thought I heard music, but it was just the rhythmic sounds of some obstacles.

You were paid to make music Barry. Why isnt there any music?!

Yeah this wasnt ripped from Super Mario Bros 2. Nope, not at all.

Pugsley controls like hes covered in grease. The damn kid just cant stand still. When you try and stop, he skids around making an annoying drum roll sound. He's so slippery that he can't even stand on a hill without sliding down them. I even found out by tapping the B button while standing still, Pigsley would slowly slide across the screen to the right. Why? What purpose does this have in the game? Maybe it has something to do with these weird ass stairs they made. They are a huge curve. You walk up them by walking across them but...whats this? You fall off after walking up half way. You can press all the directions you want, the game only leys you walk half way up, then you must jump to the next floor. But you can walk down them perfectly fine.

that must be grease splashing off his feet.

Anyways, the game differs from the first in that you arent actually looking for the family members. You run through a level and fight a boss. Its pretty simple, so im not sure how it qualifies as a scavenger hunt. The first game was a better scavenger hunt so whatever. The bosses are pretty easy, and more or less are just a matter of learning their pattern and stomping them till they run out of health. The last boss was farily difficult due to his massive size, and constantly dropping hammers from the ceiling. I found that with him the faster you jump on him the better. Speaking of difficult bosses, the chain room leading to him was actually a challenge. There are no enemies at all if you dont count the fish in the water, but the spikes covering nearly everything made it more than just a simple run through stage. I lost nearly all my lives trying to navigate that room.