Fester's Quest

"Mediocre. Enough said."

Story: Aliens arrive and kidnap Gomez. Uncle Fester is out tanning under the moon and is apparently the only one who notices. Now he must take up arms with his megaphone looking gun thingie and rescue him. The rest of the family appears during the game to aid him. 3/10

Graphics: Fester looks ok (about as good as a bald guy in a black robe is going to look on an 8 bit console), but not much in the way for animation with him. As mentioned before, his gun looks somewhat like a megaphone (or a lampshade, whichever you choose), and it shoots out some bizarre projectiles. Some of the enemies look good, but others, like the rats, are horrific. The environments are pretty bland. 4/10

Sound: The music is surprisingly catchy, but gets old after hearing the same tunes over and over again for the entire game. There isn't much in the way of sound effects, except for the sound of Fester and his enemies being hit, the sound of Fester's gun and whip, and the occasional noise from the aliens. 5/10

Control: Pretty simplistic. Moving Fester around is done with the pad or joystick. Using items and weapons is quite easy. Fester cannot shoot or move diagonally, and positioning him to attack enemies may take a little work. 4/10

Gameplay: First up, Fester doesn't move very fast. This gets even worse when he's hit by a fly. Second, Fester's life bar is very short. At the beginning of the game, he can take only two hits. This becomes annoying once you're in the sewers, with little room to avoid enemies. Also, some of the guns fire at high arcs and will harmlessly hit the wall, leaving you at the mercy of your constantly re-spawning foes. Some of the guns will fire totally past an opponent, meaning you have to shuffle Fester into a new position just to score a hit. The enemies can be quite cheap and pop up out of nowhere. That does not mix well with a short life bar. Fester will collect several items in his quest to help him out, including TNT and a noose which summons Lurch to destroy all the enemies on-screen. Once inside of buildings, the game cuts to a first person view that has an annoying flash of the screen every time you move. 4/10

Replay: Not a whole lot of replay value here. If you enjoy the game, you'll probably want to play all the way through it. Once you finish the game, however, there's little reason to go through it again. 2/10

Bottom Line: Fans of the Addams Family may like the game, but it has far too many flaws to make it worth the time of most gamers.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 10/05/02, Updated 10/05/02