The Addams Family

You can't spell "add dams" without Addams! I'm not quite sure where I was going with that but what I do know is our next game on the list is The Addams Family! This is the the fam's second visit to the NES, the first being Fester's Quest - the overhead SunSoft shooter - while this, an adventure/scrolling game. The Addams Family has everything that the show and movies incorporated: kookiness, weirdness, a memorable cast of characters, and most importantly, the famous television theme song (a.k.a. those great NES beeps tuned in sequence).

You may have come to the conclusion that I admire this game after reading the above introduction. That's far from the truth. Very much so, indeed. The game introduces nothing special to an already cliched genre (even for back then in the NES days). Extra personality or intriguing game-play elements become a must when developing a memorable side-scroller.

The control is the game's worst enemy, as Gomez can only do a few simple motions: jump, swim, and duck. You'd think since there's only three actions in the game that the programmers could make them right? Think again. And the music? Sure the famous tune is included as background music, but...did you know it plays over and over and over and over and over, over, over, over, over, over, over. Did my repeating over, and over, and over, and over, and over, make you annoyed? No? Even if I do it over, and over, and, over, and over?? (Well you should get the point by now, the theme song is repeated throughout the entire game in infinite loop! My cursed ears!)

The kookiness seems to be the only redeeming quality, though does being weird necessarily mean good? I put it at #6 because of the title's great use of Halloween-inspired sprites that certainly make the player feel the season's inner presence: EVIL FUN.