Fester's Quest

"Not that bad, but could have been a lot better"

The player takes the role of Uncle Fester of the Addams Family. The game was released by Sunsoft in 1989 on the NES.

Story: Nothing new here. Aliens attack the world and Fester has to rescue it. That kind of story was old, even back in 1989. But at least it's not the worst kind of story.
2/10

Graphics: They are not that bad. You see this game from above which gives you a nice view of the surroundings. Colours are well chosen and all in all it looks nice. The view changes to a pseudo 3D-First-Person view when you enter special buildings. The problem here is that everything is coloured in white and gray here, which makes it very hard not to lose orientation.
8/10

Sound: Nothing wrong with sounds and music, too. It's nice that the music changes if you enter the sewers or the overworld. This is a nice change and it doesn't get repetitive so fast. However, the sound of the whip is ridiculous.
7/10

Gameplay: Well, we finally came to the part where the game could have been so much better. First of all, the changes between overworld, buildings and sewers is very nice. Much better if Fester was moving around one "stage" the whole time. Also, the main controls are pretty easy. B shoots the gun or swings the whip, A uses any item selected from the inventory. The start button brings up a menu from where you can select different items. But the collision detection is sometimes a bit off, making it pretty hard to navigate big ol' Fester through narrow alleyways, because you don't hit the entrance the first time and run into walls. Another big game design flaw is the fact that ALL your shots are blocked if one single shot hits an obstacle, even if you are able to shoot several rows from your gun. So, if you stand to close to a wall and you try to shoot, all shots are blocked, making it nearly impossible for you to kill an enemy. Also, the enemies respawn too fast. Sometimes you have to back up to avoid being hit. When you killed your enemy and go back to where you actually met him the first time, he's already back again. We should have at least to screens time until enemies respawn, but in this game they nearly respawn instantly if the spawn point leaves the screen. The two last points mentioned make it sometimes impossible to go to certain areas on the map. For example if you have to go through a narrow alley, but you encounter an enemy. You have to back up or else you are not able to shoot the enemy (shots are blocked). By the time you kill the enemy and go back to the alley, another enemy already spawned, forcing you to back up. By the time you kill the enemy and go back... and so on and so on.
4/10

Play time: Because you start over from the very beginning when you die (and you WILL die at some of the bosses if you have no clue how to beat them) and in the labyrinth (the ones you see from the first person perspective you have next to no orientation, the game takes a lot longer than it should. Of course, this reduces the score in this section.
6/10

Final Recommendation: If you see the game pretty cheap somewhere and you like the Addams Family you may want to give it a try. Everybody else should just play better games of the same genre.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/08

Game Release: Fester's Quest (US, September 1989)