Fester's Quest | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Sunsoft |
Publisher(s) | Sunsoft |
Composer(s) | Naoki Kodaka |
Platform(s) | Nintendo Entertainment System, PlayChoice-10 |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Run and gun, adventure |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Fester's Quest (also known as Uncle Fester's Quest or The Addams Family: Uncle Fester's Quest) is a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System based on the 1960s television series The Addams Family . It was released in 1989 in North America and 1990 in Europe. [1]
One night, a UFO beams up all the residents of the city where The Addams Family lives; this is except for the members of the family, whom Grandmama, the only one to predict the invasion, cast a protective spell on their home beforehand. As the father of the family, Gomez Addams, must continue to guard the home from invaders, it is up to Uncle Fester to use his gun and save the townspeople from the aliens. [2]
Fester's Quest is a shoot 'em up game [3] that takes place in three overhead areas (the streets, the sewers, and the UFO platform) and six buildings where the hallways are viewed from a 3D perspective. [4]
Along the way, Fester encounters other members of the Addams Family in seven houses (plus the Addams mansion via a secret path through the trees behind the mansion): Thing (three times), Wednesday, Gomez, Morticia, Grandmama, and Pugsley, all of whom help him by giving him different weapons and items. Use of one particular item, the Noose, will summon Lurch to destroy all enemies on the screen. The game uses Blaster Master 's overhead shooter engine.[ citation needed ]
Fester must travel through the city sewers to reach areas that are otherwise inaccessible due to aboveground obstacles. He may enter certain buildings, which transform the game from its standard overhead view into a 3D mode of play akin to a dungeon crawl. Five of these buildings each house an enormous Alien Boss character, which upon defeat will supply Fester with a puzzle piece and a picture of the alien's UFO, and refill all of his items. After defeating a boss, Fester will leave the building and be unable to backtrack through it to previously visited areas. Once all five bosses are defeated, Fester must board the UFO and defeat one last boss in order to stave off the invasion.
The North American release has a feature that makes Fester's bullets collide with walls and objects, making it more difficult to hit enemies compared to the European release. [5]
Publication | Score |
---|---|
AllGame | [6] |
Computer and Video Games | 56% [7] |
Electronic Gaming Monthly | 5/10 [3] |
Joystick | 70% [8] |
Nintendo Life | [9] |
Nintendo Power | 4.45/5 [lower-alpha 1] |
Official Nintendo Magazine | 57% [11] |
Player One | 70% [12] |
Total! | 14% [13] |
Super Gamer | 34% [14] |
VideoGame | [15] |
The French magazine Player One stated that Fester's Quest was great for fans of the franchise, although did suffer from short game length, "motley" visuals, and occasional slowdown. [12] Paul Glancey of CVG , on the other hand, dismissed the game for its "flickery and unimpressive" visuals, lack of humor, and "unrewarding" mindless shooting gameplay consisting of constantly-respawning enemies. [7] Critics from Electronic Gaming Monthly felt that while the game had alright graphics and "awesome" and "very good" music, its difficulty was "unbalanced" as it consisted of too-little real action and variety, very-easy mini-quests, and "next to impossible" bosses. [3]
GamesRadar ranked it as the 73rd worst game ever made. The staff criticized its excessive difficulty and lack of comicality. [16] IGN ranked Fester's Quest 45th on its Top 100 NES Games list. [17] Fester's Quest has sold one million copies. [18]
The Addams Family is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 standalone single-panel comics, about half of which were originally published in The New Yorker between 1938 and their creator's death in 1988. They have since been adapted to other media, such as television, film, video games, comic books, a musical, and merchandise.
Uncle Fester (Addams) is a member of the fictional Addams Family and has been played by numerous actors, beginning with Jackie Coogan in the television series The Addams Family (1964).
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is a 1987 action role-playing game developed and published by Konami. It was originally released in Japan in 1987 for the Famicom Disk System, and in North America in 1988 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the second Castlevania game released for the NES, following the original Castlevania (1986). Set seven years after the events of the first installment, the player once again assumes the role of vampire hunter Simon Belmont, who is on a journey to undo a curse placed on him by Dracula at the end of their previous encounter. Dracula's body was split into five parts, which Simon must find and bring to the ruins of Castle Dracula in order to defeat him. The game deviates from the traditional platforming of its predecessor, incorporating role-playing and open world elements.
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The Addams Family is an American animated sitcom adaptation of the Charles Addams single-panel comic for The New Yorker. The show was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for Saturday mornings in 1973, and was later rebroadcast the following season. Jackie Coogan and Ted Cassidy, who played Uncle Fester and Lurch, respectively, in the 1960s television series, returned in voice-over roles. The cast also included 10-year-old Jodie Foster, who performed the voice of Pugsley Addams. The show's theme music was completely different and had no lyrics or finger snapping, but retained a recognizable part of the four-note score from the live-action series.
The New Addams Family is a sitcom that aired from October 1998 to August 1999 on YTV in Canada and Fox Family in the United States and CITV in the United Kingdom on weekends. It was produced by Shavick Entertainment and Saban Entertainment as a revival of the 1960s series The Addams Family. The series was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
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