Approximate Release Date: March 10, 1992
Genre: Platformer
Developer: Ocean Software
Publisher: Ocean Software

The Addams Family screws up the one thing that any adaptation of the movie of the television sitcom needs to get correct: The rendition of the theme song is terrible.

Let’s ignore the fact that turning The Addams Family into a video game is weird. Because it is. Obviously turning a sitcom into a platformer is a strange decision – one we will see a lot of as SNES A Day continues – but why does the player-controlled Gomez sound like a car when he skids to a stop? Why does he honk when he gets hit?

Sound and music aside, The Addams Family isn’t a bad game. You start off in front of the family’s mansion, and from there can go to any level in whatever order you choose. This hub concept does a lot to make this game interesting. Each doorway has different environments and enemies inside and there are enough secret areas to make exploration worth it. It feels almost like a “Metroidvania”  game, but I don’t think there are any areas that you need power-ups to traverse.

Controlling Gomez is standard for the platforming genre, but he can be surprisingly squirrely to maneuver at times. Landing precise jumps can be a challenge, but the game is generous when it comes to jumping on monsters; there were times where I should have been hit by a bad guy but was given credit for stomping it instead. I died numerous times by misjudging where the line was between me hitting them and getting hit myself. This was made worse whenever I had the sneakers power-up. I could never tell what those did because they made Gomez impossible to control.

I had fun with The Addams Family. It’s fairly challenging and has some novel ideas that were unexpected in a licensed game. I don’t give it a strong recommendation, but there are worse ways to spend a few hours.

Tomorrow: If you wanted more 16-bit baseball, you got it with Extra Innings!

Title screen

Thing!

In front of the Addams’ mansion.

The death screen. That weird comma drives me crazy.

Inside the main hub.

There are some levels outside the mansion.

Continue screen

Take that, bird-thing!

Jumping from rope to rope

Lurch and Thing just hanging out together.

Yeah, that’s some kind of monkey in a teacup.

There are secret areas everywhere.

Gomez controls like garbage on ice.