Fester's Quest
The NES library is host to a slew of bizarre licensed games, but Fester's Quest might be the weirdest of them. Released by Sunsoft in 1990, about a year before The Addams Family movie brought the clan back into the public consciousness, it dealt with Uncle Fester running around the mansion grounds and trying to rescue other members of the Addams clan that were, no joke, abducted by aliens.
The Angry Video Game Nerd already went into the frustrations of the game. How most of the guns have no reach because their wacky firing patterns collide with the world. How it's possible to accidentally downgrade your gun. How enemies respawn endlessly.
But I'm focused on this.
I mean, the game has one of the darkest boss themes this side of Batman, and yet it has one of the most cartoony made-in-MS-Paint title screens ever. What happened to this game? Was it an inverse Journey to Silius, another Sunsoft production which started life as a Terminator game, only to have the licensed yanked at the last minute? Was Fester's Quest developed with a completely different premise, and then hastily retrofit for The Addams Family? Look at the bosses! Does a one-eyed space mutant with a machine gun scream Addams Family to you? A triceratops alien with chain whips? What about Fester launching homing missiles?
Maybe it was meant to be a sequel to Blaster Master. It certainly used the same engine and had many identical sound effects. Maybe it was a quick license cash-in. Who knows? X)
The Angry Video Game Nerd already went into the frustrations of the game. How most of the guns have no reach because their wacky firing patterns collide with the world. How it's possible to accidentally downgrade your gun. How enemies respawn endlessly.
But I'm focused on this.
I mean, the game has one of the darkest boss themes this side of Batman, and yet it has one of the most cartoony made-in-MS-Paint title screens ever. What happened to this game? Was it an inverse Journey to Silius, another Sunsoft production which started life as a Terminator game, only to have the licensed yanked at the last minute? Was Fester's Quest developed with a completely different premise, and then hastily retrofit for The Addams Family? Look at the bosses! Does a one-eyed space mutant with a machine gun scream Addams Family to you? A triceratops alien with chain whips? What about Fester launching homing missiles?
Maybe it was meant to be a sequel to Blaster Master. It certainly used the same engine and had many identical sound effects. Maybe it was a quick license cash-in. Who knows? X)