Szlia
Member
Well... since the NES was hot, I also played through Fester's Quest.
This top down exploration shooter game uses the Addams Family licence. I am not familiar with the Addams Family, but I don't think this story of alien invasion is exactly canon... anyway, you control the slow and 4 direction moving uncle Fester and shoot mutant frogs, slimes and other oddities through a town and its sewers. To spice things up you have some first person view mazes and some boss fights...
I would say the three most original things about this game are:
1) The whole town is one big map, the whole sewer system is one big map and the alien spaceship is one big map. I find that both odd and elegant.
2) The intro is simple but surprisingly well animated for a game of that era. There are also many big still images throughout the game (portraits of the family members when you check some houses - to save memory though they are in a limited sepia palette!).
3) It adds a number of rpg-lite elements: enemies drop money (needed to buy hot dogs at hot dog stands to heal), light bulbs (to see in the sewers), keys (to enter buildings), and power ups for your blunderbuss and whip as well as power down for those. In the buildings you meet family members who give you special items such as TNT, health potions, etc. The flip side of that "rpg-ness" is that at times you need to farm for gun upgrades (if you stupidly collected a power down), for keys or light bulbs (the later is theoretical as I had plenty).
Other than that... the game is pretty bland. Exploration is minimal (a couple of area in town are opened, but 90% of the game is spent walking down the one available path). Enemy design and variety is lame, you basically spend your time mashing things down no matter what shows up in front of your blunderbuss. Boss battles are lame (again: mash mash mash, chug health potion of invulnerability potion, mash mash mash) and challenge is limited. The European version of the game that I played is easier than the US version with all enemies and bosses having less hp, so I died only once. A good thing I did not die more, because when you do you restart all the way to the beginning (but bosses are dead and you keep your collectibles). That being said, I suspect having more hp on everything would not make the game that much harder, but just a lot more tedious!
So yeah... Fester's Quest. A lot less glitches than Metal Gear, but also a lot less entertainment!
Fun fact: the game has no ending credits. I guess the people at Sunsoft were not too proud of that one!
This top down exploration shooter game uses the Addams Family licence. I am not familiar with the Addams Family, but I don't think this story of alien invasion is exactly canon... anyway, you control the slow and 4 direction moving uncle Fester and shoot mutant frogs, slimes and other oddities through a town and its sewers. To spice things up you have some first person view mazes and some boss fights...
I would say the three most original things about this game are:
1) The whole town is one big map, the whole sewer system is one big map and the alien spaceship is one big map. I find that both odd and elegant.
2) The intro is simple but surprisingly well animated for a game of that era. There are also many big still images throughout the game (portraits of the family members when you check some houses - to save memory though they are in a limited sepia palette!).
3) It adds a number of rpg-lite elements: enemies drop money (needed to buy hot dogs at hot dog stands to heal), light bulbs (to see in the sewers), keys (to enter buildings), and power ups for your blunderbuss and whip as well as power down for those. In the buildings you meet family members who give you special items such as TNT, health potions, etc. The flip side of that "rpg-ness" is that at times you need to farm for gun upgrades (if you stupidly collected a power down), for keys or light bulbs (the later is theoretical as I had plenty).
Other than that... the game is pretty bland. Exploration is minimal (a couple of area in town are opened, but 90% of the game is spent walking down the one available path). Enemy design and variety is lame, you basically spend your time mashing things down no matter what shows up in front of your blunderbuss. Boss battles are lame (again: mash mash mash, chug health potion of invulnerability potion, mash mash mash) and challenge is limited. The European version of the game that I played is easier than the US version with all enemies and bosses having less hp, so I died only once. A good thing I did not die more, because when you do you restart all the way to the beginning (but bosses are dead and you keep your collectibles). That being said, I suspect having more hp on everything would not make the game that much harder, but just a lot more tedious!
So yeah... Fester's Quest. A lot less glitches than Metal Gear, but also a lot less entertainment!
Fun fact: the game has no ending credits. I guess the people at Sunsoft were not too proud of that one!
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