SNES Review 133: The Adams Family

Well it seemed like the right month to do this so you know what game I am going to be talking about right now The Adams Family. Now I have to admit to being a big fan of The Adams Family I think its mostly because of the fact that there is an underlining message to there show and that is that its OK to be diffrent, its OK to like things other people dont, to think things other people dont and to basically be yourself.

Ok so despite what I said about The Addams Family not being afraid to be diffrent the game I am talking about was a movie license turned into a platformer which felt like it was heavily inspired by the Super Mario games. It was based on the 1991 Adams Family film the game was both developed by and published by Ocean Software in 1992. The game was far from a SNES exclusive it was also released for the Master System, Sega Mega Drive / Genesis, Amiga and Atari ST. Yet as a kid this is something I never realised, my first experiance of playing this game was at a friends house but and I guess this will give the end of the review away a little after enjoying it there I went and grabbed myself a second hand copy.

I know that the moment people hear the dreaded term movie license they will feel this little twinge of panic an instant oh no this is going to suck, and a lot of the time. Well this is a trend that Addam's Family sort of breaks. Ok so you play the role of Gomez Adams. All of your family apart from Lurch and Thing  have been kidnapped (The family Butler and a sentient hand for those who arnt in the know about the Adams family).  So basically you as Gomez need to explore your mansion and its grounds so that you can find and rescue your family.  You also need to help Uncle Fester regain his memory (he has amnesia). Yeah the story is not exactly the most amazing but well its enough to base a game on so I wont complain too much.

The game might be a bit short on story but I have to admit that I really enjoy the graphics, yeah they might not exactly be the best on the system but you can certainly tell who everyone is and I really enjoy the cartoonish look, I think it really suits the game, Gomez looks great and has some really cool little animations, as he taps his feet and looks around if you stop playing and just leave him standing there. When you put the graphics with the music it just makes for something a little bit special and yes the theme song is in there its even on the title screen. The game is great at sucking you in and making you want to play it but then there is a slight problem and the problem lies with the gameplay.

So yeah as said earlier the game is a typical platformer with your usual sort of platform rules, for example if you collect 25 coins you get an extra heart and can you guess what happens if you collect 100 yep thats right you get an extra life.You kill enemies by jumping on their heads. You can also get an upgrade that lets you shoot balls, balls which work just a little bit exactly like Mario's  fireballs.  Yeah being in some ways like one of the best games ever is not a bad thing but Adams Family lacks something the Mario games have and thats the tight controls and the pixel perfect hit detection. Gomez is quiet slidy and there are a lot of times when you feel certain you timed a jump just right and yet you still see yourself loose a heart. Its a real shame that Ocean didnt tighten up the controls and the hit detection as even with these issues the game is enjoyable but it could have been even better with just a little bit of work.

The game is quiet challanging and can keep you playing for a long time but unfortunately, much of this challenge comes from the above mentioned control issues which means you can get quiet frustrated with it. There are plenty of secrets for you to go looking for and the game is mostly nonlinear you can rescue your family in any order you like with only one exception you need to rescue Morticia last. I guess this review started off very positivly and it might feel like it is ending on a bit of a bummer but the truth is that this is exactly how I found this game when I replayed it in order to write this review. One minute I was smiling at the music and the little Gomez taping his foot and the next minute I was inventing new swear words and turning the air a whole new shade of blue. For a Movie license its a great game but for a platformer in general its much more 6.5 out of 10 territory, its a fun game which could have been a real contender if it had gotten just a little bit more attention, if some of the collision detection and control based flaws had just been ironed out a bit. Dont get me wrong if you can get a cart of it for under £10 and you have already played the likes of Mario and want a little bit more platforming on your Super Nintendo then go for it, its not a bad game at all, its just well it could have been so much more.