Addams Family damage values: Fester's Quest | NES Works 146

[@Faction.Paradox]

Who could forget that classic episode of Addams Family where Fester fires spread shot at enemies & traverses first person mazes

[@AnAverageGoblin]

Fester going First Blood was inevitable tbh

[@EriChanTheRetroGamerNerd]

@@Faction.Paradox Everything is in first person to yourself. And I'm sure there's a maze in that mansion.

[@Wyldfyre.84]

I remember asking my parents if Uncle Fester ever had a gun.

[@Alex_Valentine]

Best episode ever.

[@OhBear-j8l]

Well he always wanted to shoot someone in the back.

[@daviddalrymple2284]

Uncle Fester's blunderbuss was actually a significant recurring feature on the Addams Family. It was called "Genevieve".

[@zombiejlt1]

Along with his hillarious line "I'll shoot em in the back."

[@josheldridge8546]

​​@@zombiejlt1"Fester, old boy, I'm surprised at you! We Addamses don't know the meaning of the word 'fear!'" "But I do-- I'll shoot'im in the back!"

[@RockSoup]

And here I always thought it was some kind of magic toilet plunger.

[@subtlewhatssubtle]

@@zombiejlt1 I honestly always had a laugh at his reasoning for it. Sure it's cowardly, but it's safe!

[@zombiejlt1]

@@subtlewhatssubtle same

[@shatterball]

it really is a fester's quest kind of day, huh

[@melvinpretlow7921]

Unfortunately 😢

[@Panzer_the_Merganser]

@@melvinpretlow7921 And they all are creepy and they're kooky.

[@foxx64]

Amen this comment helped tho

[@RyuseiiTheCrimsonKing]

Yep, a wonderful kind of day.

[@Daryoon]

Fester's Quest? More like Festering Pest.

[@archstanton2530]

The fact that you had no continues and had to start all over was actually advertised in the original commercials like it was supposed to be some kind of fun challenge.

[@zombiejlt1]

Exactly, they were upfront about it unlike most games deemed "NES Hard" so I applaud SUNSOFT for saying so. Heck a family friend had this game and being an ADDAMS FAMILY fan starting at a young age, I enjoyed the heck out of it and still do to this day. I've streamed and completed it live and I always find myself playing it and still enjoying it.

[@velarantube]

Bitd, challenge was a desired feature of a game. Not for nothing did the Video Game Magazines have a category for Difficulty. So highly prized in fact, TECMO drove this point home by having the phrases "The fight of your life", "Tough to Beat" on the front of the Ninja Gaiden games and cart art!(one of the Reasons, NG became a best seller and by word for super hard games!) Not to mention challenge would be emphasized on the back of many a cart boxes so you knew you didn't buy/rent something you'd finish quickly and easily! Kids(and some adults of the time[who were, contra this video, actually playing NES!]) ate up difficult games like Ghost 'N Goblins, TMNT, Mega Man(I), CastleVania, etc... Might've helped Fester's Quest as well. According to SunSoft, they sold over a million copies of the game!

[@zombiejlt1]

@@velarantube I sure did, I loved a challenge as a kid and still do. That's why I never hated on this one or other games at the time.

[@Ratralsis]

Even for parents: my dad would get mad if I beat a game in less than a week because he felt like he'd wasted his money. Didn't matter if I later replayed it or had a great time while it lasted. So that was something that he looked for when shopping for Christmas/birthday gifts, too.

[@zombiejlt1]

@Ratralsis My mom was the same way. But she also knew if I beat a game too soon, it was because it was either easy or I got good at it quickly. That's why we lived for renting back then. Gave us an idea of what games were worth the challenge or not. Plus, rentals also forced us to get good, too, two days to beat a game lol.

[@reyvgm]

Since you mentioned this a few times in the video, I got to issue a plot correction: you don't rescue Gomez from the aliens. You can actually visit him inside the Addams mansion at any point in the game. I honestly don't know how this incorrect plot element has spread like wildfire on so many wikis when neither the game nor the manual mention anything at all about aliens abducting any of the Addamses. And as mentioned before, you can visit Gomez st anytime, just like you can visit the other family members too. Other than that, fantastic analysis and glad you pointed out how Fester's Quest is just the bad parts of Blaster Master.

[@SimonCallahan]

I think the funniest thing about the plot is that, within the context of the original show, the Addams' might have welcomed alien visitors.

[@reyvgm]

@@SimonCallahan Yeah, I mentioned that in my NES Endings Compendium book. At the end, the entire family is celebrating Fester saving the townspeople, but in reality they should be bummed.

[@michaelturner2806]

Displaced Gamers channel has a great dive into the code of Feaster's Quest, including the PAL tweaks, and some example edits you could do as ROM patches or Game Genie codes to make things a little more fair but not an invincibility level of outright cheat.

[@sethmilk]

It’s wild that they were able to change a single value in the code to make your “bullets” not die on walls and make the game immensely more playable.

[@DeepWeeb]

​@@sethmilkIt really is all that simple as changing a line of code in a game to make an improvement, isn't it? And shows that even before game patches developers were interested in sanding-off the rough edges of their games if given the chance (even if done very stealthly, like a region-exclusive variant)

[@jessragan6714]

Pro-tip: No matter how difficult you think this game is, refrain from shouting "I BEAT FESTER!" within earshot of your brother and his friend. That doesn't end well. Feeling kind of lousy, and I'm sure you feel the same way, but thanks all the same for your videos and your dedication to classic gaming history.

[@SynopsisGrim]

Well, Uncle Fester in the show was a masochist, so him being in a brutally difficult game seems on par for him. Plus, Uncle Fester went through this game barefoot! What a brute! This game was pretty much a "souls like" before Dark Souls.

[@BearsinGamesNeo-qt5ww]

As a large bald man I feel Fester (and Darth Vader with his helmet off) single handedly inspired a generation of large bald men to grow some kind of facial hair or else just see Fester in the mirror every day

[@jessragan6714]

I went bald once. Some men can make it work. Others end up looking like Curly from The Three Stooges.

[@jorymil]

I think bald and slender works better than bald and large. Bald and slender look like Michael Jordan; bald and large gives you Mr. Clean or Uncle Fester.

[@smeagle3295]

@@jorymilnobody wants to look like fester, but Mr. Clean isn’t so bad

[@Nemo2342]

What's interesting to me is watching the footage and seeing so many elements reworked or inspired from Blaster Master, like those frog enemies that are bosses that were scaled way down.

[@JeremyParish]

Yeah the little baby bosses in the UFO are wild. Makes you wonder if Jason was actually like two feet tall.

[@zombiejlt1]

Although the items the family gives you seem kind of random, the developers did get some of their ideas from the show. Morticia gives you the whip because in the show, she demonstrates her skill with one by hitting a candle on Gomez's head. Pugsley gives you TNT because in the show, he knew how to make dynamite caps along with Fester. The nooses given by Grandmama were, of course, how the family summoned Lurch on the show. The potions were in also made by Grandmama, as in the show because she was seen as a witch, but because Thing can travel quickly throughout the home, she probably asked him to deliver them every time she made something new. As for Wednesday and the vicegrip, the Addams do have a "torture" room where they would use various devices and aside from the stock and bed of nails, Fester like to use the vice grip on his head in to cure his ailments.

[@Dilios_of_Sparta]

There were a lot of NES games back in the day based on dated (1950s-1960s) Baby Boomer television programming: The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Star Trek (the original series), Gilligan's Island, etc. I think the release of Fester's Quest was just par for the course on the NES back in the 1980s. It seemed normal/natural back then to adapt a quirky Boomer sitcom into a video game, starring one of the quirkiest characters on T.V.

[@Belgand]

It was also an era where syndication on local independent TV stations and Nick at Nite gave them enduring life with younger viewers. As a kid in the '80s I was deeply familiar with Dobie Gillis, Green Acres, Dragnet, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Beverly Hillbillies, My Three Sons, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Patty Duke Show, F Troop, Car 54, Where Are You?, Mr. Ed, The Munsters, and The Addams Family. Among a number of others. And a lot of those independent stations are where the syndicated animated shows like He-Man or GI Joe also aired, so it was even more natural for us to catch them before or after morning and afternoon blocks aimed at kids.

[@gazzy_burns]

Gunsmoke was such a good game!

[@SetTopGames]

Let's not forget about Rocky and Bullwinkle.

[@Dilios_of_Sparta]

@Belgand Exactly! Well said! Back in the mid-to-late 1980s, Nick@Nite introduced a lot of that programming to Gen Xers--and we ate it up! We loved it. The NES was a perfect platform to translate those Baby Boomer adventure shows or sitcoms or cartoons into a video game. I remember seeing Fester's Quest in Nintendo Power and thinking: "Awesome! I wonder if we'll get a game for Get Smart too . . ."

[@OmegaDez]

Capcom's Gunsmoke (or Gun.Smoke, lol) had nothing to do with the TV show.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

3:50 Them's fightin' words Jeremy.

[@solomonstillthebest5737]

NGL, Lucy Ricardo fighting aliens sounds like an amazing game, but only if it was done straight. Well, straight as a episode of I Love Lucy ever was, anyway.

[@vincentgood2234]

*Ricky walks into the room to find Lucy standing over an alien corpse, repeatedly kicking it in the throat* Ricky: LUCY!!! YOU GOT SOME 'SPLAINING TO DO!

[@gluttonousmaximus9048]

Desilu WAS bankrolling Star Trek for a while though

[@fredm2144]

The PAL region has been improved and is way more enjoyable, with ennemies requiring less hits to be killed, and projectiles being able to go through walls and obstacles... great video as always, thanks!

[@AFnord]

I never knew of this differences before. I was always surprised by the amount of hate this game got, I thought it was fine, but this probably explains it, as I played the PAL version.

[@Dystnine]

I like how Uncle Fester was just chilling when Aliens attack. Music was good. Then again, Sunsoft had a great sound chip. Funny that the whip was later used in Blaster Master Zero 2 as a weapon upgrade.

[@zombiejlt1]

@Dystnine Moon bathing is something the Fester and the family did on occasion. There is an episode showcasing this, too. It inspired us to do the same, and it is relaxing.

[@emidiokrupa9102]

This was the hardest game when I was a kid, but it was mostly because I had to play on a black and white TV, so I was never sure what color the pickups were. I ended up just never picking anything up and beating it with the lowest damage weapon

[@osurpless]

Impressive in its dedication!

[@velarantube]

Cool! Awesome achievement! Definitely hard, at that rate! Side note: for decades(Since we got the Vader VCS in '83), we've used a 13" B/W TV to play our 2600! Also, I use this same TV to watch The Wizard of Oz every year! (Vowed never to watch it in color 'cuz of childhood tradition with my Grandad. )

[@BagOfMagicFood]

I was gonna say, way to be colorblind-unfriendly, Sunsoft.

[@mklptrk]

Great episode, Jeremy! I greatly appreciate your dedicated and prolific work with the series - and the fact that you occasionally bust out words like "parsimonious" or "xenial" is just gravy. Keep going, boss!

[@TheRickHoward]

I admire that you wanted to highlight the positives, but still had to delve into the many issues with the game. About as fair a review as could be done.

[@RogerPyoko]

We had Fester's Quest in my house, so I have a certain fondness for it. Like one does for a particularly ugly puppy that bites unprovoked. The "cohesive world" is really nice to have in an action game of that vintage, and you can never go wrong with some of Sunsoft's finest music on the NES. The music to Fester's Quest never gets enough praise. Sure, my father probably bought the NES Advantage just for this game because without turbo fire it's insane, but I'll say I certainly had more fun attempting to beat Fester's Quest than I did playing something like LJN's X-Men.

[@dillontam9752]

The state this game ended up in made a lot more sense to me once I discovered that its programmer was Tomomi Sakai. He of course went on to create Gimmick!, which it turns out he started on immediately after completing Fester's Quest. That same hardcore arcade mentality that defined Gimmick!'s design but with a fraction of that game's development time, and by his own account a complete disinterest for the project, is a potent mix that I wish on no product. Oh well, at least Richard Robbins and Michael Mendheim got to make their dream top-down action-adventure starring a retro horror sitcom hero, with... Midnight Mutants!

[@jonothanthrace1530]

Midnight Mutants makes a little more sense on the surface, timing-wise, given that The Munsters Today was on the air when it came out.

[@sppspharmdude]

Thank you for describing the limitations of syndicated television on non mainstream broadcast tv

[@JeremyParish]

Kids today don't even know

[@sethmilk]

I had this game as a kid and absolutely adored it. I completed it regularly on lazy weekends. I honestly think if the negative power-ups were removed, your “bullets” didn’t die on hitting the walls, and the enemy respawns were slightly more forgiving, it would be regarded differently. I suppose it’s not a novel opinion to say that a game would be good if you took out everything that makes it bad.

[@johnnygrind77]

I have a friend who I met in high school who loved this game and still does to this day. Neither of us were too fond of the 1st person maze portion of the game, but he's still the only person I know who can pop in the cart and complete it start to finish in 1 go. It's difficult to be hard on a Sunsoft game, especially with those soundtracks!

[@EriChanTheRetroGamerNerd]

@@johnnygrind77 You never played Ikki, did you?

[@johnnygrind77]

@@EriChanTheRetroGamerNerd I know it's considered, "Kuso" but it still did well. It's nice to be nice, Eri Chan! Daijobu, tomo!

[@tinypinata505]

Man this game was my jam. Sadly I never beat it. But for it being as difficult as it was I'm still satisfied that I always made it to the last level.

[@dallasmishey9779]

Calling the Munsters a low-effort knockoff of the Addams Family? Oh, you'll change your tune when the Rob-Zombie-helmed Munsters film comes out and revitalizes the franchise! Yeah, once 2022 rolls around, we'll ALL be raving about the... uh... hmm.

[@milkcarton6654]

The sad thing is to this day i have never played Blaster Master. But i did rent Fester's Quest. Once.

[@Dresdenstl]

Play the Blaster Master Zero trilogy. They're great platformers.

[@RockSoup]

Oh, you did NOT just trash The Munsters! YOU. DINT.

[@RoseWaltz]

the Munsters get so much trash and it's not really fair - it was a find show, and could be very endearing

[@KasumiKenshirou]

@@RoseWaltz They weren't a "ripoff", either. Both shows debuted within a few days of each other. I like them both, but prefer The Munsters. They definitely had a better theme song. The Addams Family's sounds like they only spent 15 minutes writing it. "Wait, 'scream' doesn't rhyme with 'museum'. Surely we can come up with something better than that." "THERE'S NO MORE TIME! THEY'RE GOING TO START RECORDING THE SONG AT THE STUDIO IN 10 MINUTES! WE'VE GOT TO GO!"

[@aakadarr]

That boss music is so good though. One of my all time favorite nes music.

[@ManuelRodriguez-lv6kk]

I actually enjoyed Festers Quest. As a kid u played what u had and found some level of fun in it. Good times.

[@EndymionMkII]

Just as I was gonna write a comment about the different version and romhack, especially the video by Displaced Gamers in their Behind the Code series, you do allude to those things. A good reminder to fully watch a video before commenting huh

[@michaelturner2806]

The extensive coverage in Nintendo Power made me really really want the game. Thank goodness everybody who loved me inadvertently spared from the crushing disappointment of its difficulty. I was a kid who couldn't get past 4-1 on SMB.

[@MetalSocks]

This is one of the finest guilty pleasures. If anything it made me appreciate that "bad" games can have a lil fun when realizing these were made by the same squad as Blaster Master. Like a real Uncle I'll never hate Fester and his Quest.

[@davidmylchreest3306]

Just watching the footage of this game and how many times you have to hit even the tiniest enemies feels exhausting.

[@shawnwakeman6324]

Thank you for doing this video and covering this game. This is one of the very first video games I ever played. It came with the Nintendo that I bought from my neighbor in 1995. Loved the music And was absolutely blown away by how hard this game was. It is good to know all these years later, that it would’ve been hard for me at any age. Let alone, an eight-year-old who desperately wanted to experience the world of video games.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Yeah, I actually played this quite a bit back in the day (don't ask me why) and I totally agree with your assessment: It comes so close to being good that it's almost compelling. But it never pays off, and just gets more painful the further into it you go.

[@absolutezeronow7928]

Definitely a good episode on the oddity that is Fester's Quest. I definitely remember the Nintendo Power coverage but it was not a game that I played. I probably would have bounced off of it if I did though.

[@theturninggate]

For some unknown reason, I did have this game as a child, and I played a ton of it, because that's what you did with the games you had. Never finished it, but got pretty far in. I haven't found any good reason to go back to it in my adulthood, though.

[@TrickyMcnickle]

I owned this game and had a Nintendo Power that covered it and I could never get too far into it. But I'm kinda fond of it, mainly because back in the day you played whatever game you were gifted because it's what you had.

[@ridureyu]

The next season of Wednesday needs to be a straight adaptation of this game, including the Naoki Kodaka music.

[@itsmerickv]

Addams Family was part of the after school line up in 1989. Me and my first grade pals would quote it all the time so maybe we were the demographic. I def enjoyed this game despite how hard it was.

[@alessandrobaggi6129]

To me, Fester's Quest, has always had a portrait of Rodney Dangerfield in Fester's costume... 😁😁😁

[@SaxcatGamingCorner]

This game is fun and I still Love it. Definitely agree with it being in the top 50 on several all Time nes lists.

[@Bishop228]

I got this game as a Christmas gift from my grandparents the year it came out. To this day I still have no idea what I was doing when I played it, & I have no idea why they picked that particular game. It was a weird game & was very difficult, so I only played it a few times. Kinda wished I would've gone back & finished it. None of my friends owned the game or played the game, it seemed very obscure back then lol. I really enjoyed your video on it.

[@ZaGorudan]

Learning this game has the same progression and design as *Blaster Master* certainly puts it into perspective. The PAL version is actually much more fair, but I gave up on the final level of it because Fester's Quest overall just isn't fun even with the difficulty scaled down.

[@vintagegamecrazy]

I'm not going to lie. This is kind of one of my favorite games on the original nes. This game even plays better with a turbo controller. I just have so much fun playing it despite it shortcomings.

[@gazzy_burns]

I am still obsessed with this weird game

[@rhombusx]

Despite all its shortcomings, this game is featured all over the internet in "Hidden Gems" and even Top 100 lists for the NES. Shows how far smooth movement and programming, nice visuals, and great audio go.

[@velarantube]

Yep! It didn't sell over a million copies for nothing! I'm late to the Fester's Quest Appreciation Society, but I'm an enthusiastic member! 🙂

[@WhimsicalPhil]

9:37 The Munsters are innocent here! Thing and Cousin Itt are both Addams Family characters.

[@JeremyParish]

Ah... my bad. Like I said, I can't keep Munsters info straight in my memory. They're such an obvious and middling knockoff.

[@game-sheriff]

@@JeremyParish one family is evil on principal the others just an average family that just happens to be not humans...

[@KasumiKenshirou]

@@JeremyParish The Addams Family only debuted a week before The Munsters. You simply can't throw together a show THAT quickly.

[@eclect]

​@@KasumiKenshirou and the Munsters pilot was made first. That said, the original concept for the Munsters was kind of a ripoff of the same Charles Addams comic strips that the Addams Family were based on, but the two series are actually quite different and during their original run the Munsters consistently outperformed the Addams Family. I think the 90s Addams Family movies have a lot to do with their modern reputation

[@poparena]

...I had never actually pieced together that Fester's Quest wasn't a cash-in on the movie, never looked at release dates. I mean, obviously that's Jackie Coogan, but I always figured it was a quick grab of the TV show license to have something on store shelves when the movie came out. This game just got so much weirder for me.

[@OmegaDez]

When I first played that game, I had no idea that there was a movie on the way so I never made the connection.

[@velarantube]

@@OmegaDez Yeah... No one I knew could believe there was gonna be a movie based on the TV show back in '89!

[@jackill2611]

Thanks for you work!

[@gldni17]

The idea of an Adams Family video game is never totally absurd, as the appeal of the core concept is something that always has an audience. This is especially true for people who have a perspective of themselves as being against the grain of societal expectations. However, as a top-down shooter adventure made for mostly kids? Strange concept and strange timing for sure.

[@SwordofKings]

Pretty underrated game.

[@michielkroder4031]

I love Fester's Quest and completed it with my trusty NES Advantage stick back in the days... when I was bad at video games. Mind you, I played the PAL version, which makes some small but significant fixes, like being able to shoot through walls.

[@doricdream498]

I believe this is the first NES game to use the DPCM sample channel for sampled basslines. So there's that.

[@cooltaylor1015]

My buddy had Fester's Quest when we were kids. We spent many dozens, maybe hundreds, of hours getting nowhere in the game but loving it.

[@cooltaylor1015]

And it was a LOT of fun. Even if it was very hard and stupidly frustrating. Even if neither of us ever remotely got anywhere near finishing. Even if the 3d parts give me a headache. I got to play Addams Family! As Fester! Just playing was fun.

[@memejohn86]

love this game honestly.

[@roguerifter9724]

Ahh the memories. This was one of the first NES games my family owned because one oof dad's friends got him copy for Christmas when mom and dad got me an NES for Christmas the year it came out.

[@jamesd4991]

Fantastic ep of NES works!

[@2dskillz]

This game always felt surprisingly present, in hindsight. I had several friends that owned it. It always felt unfair but with competent controls that you felt that it was your own shortcomings preventing success.

[@raafmaat]

Yes because i remember this game ending up in the discount bins pretty quickly, so i guess alot of parents bought it just because it was the only recognizable thing in those bins! haha

[@IWasCaptainPanda]

I was a kid in elementary school when this came out, and remember my brother and I got pretty into old re-runs of the Addams Family watching reruns on afternoon TV during summer vacation (and similar), along with old Adam West Batman stuff, and whatnot. This was actually one of the few NES games we owned and didn't just rent from the video store, and one we were pretty hyped for. And maybe this next part is the time compression you mentioned, but I remember it being one of those games that our friends were pretty interested in, too. Maybe it was local to areas with the right UHF stations...

[@AnAverageGoblin]

I own Fester's Quest. I don't know where it came from or how I got it but its there... haunting me

[@jbanks979]

That has got to rank in the top 5% of most garish box arts of all time. Being around your age, I definitely remember the Adams family (pre the movie adaptation), but it was an entirely black and white goofy sitcom from the 60’s that would air during the time when there wasn’t yet enough stuff to fill all hours of the day. It was pure boomer nostalgia like I guess friends would be for millennials. (I never played this game but the blaster master connections make me want to)

[@KasumiKenshirou]

For some reason I thought that the spider was part of his forehead. To be fair, I'd never actually seen the show at that point. I knew a show called "The Addams Family" had existed and "🎶da da da da 🫰🫰🎶", but I never even saw the reruns back then.

[@struntsi]

As a kid in the early 90's yes we did find this game pretty challenging, but easier when we came up a way to grind the gun and whip powerups. I kind of liked it.

[@tekkensentai]

It was the perfect game for the NES Advantage

[@JeremyParish]

Yeah, I ended up dusting off my Advantage for this episode. It's exhausting without it.

[@velarantube]

@@JeremyParish In the Fester's Quest instruction manual, it *literally* says you should consider using a controller with Turbo! Pg. 12, under 'Game Hints', 2nd item in list. :-)

[@wusstunes]

Jeremy, you released this on the wrong spooky holiday

[@superleviathan]

You do have to admire the developers' passion. They loved the property and wanted to make a game out of it, despite not being the most relevant property (at the time, anyway). That makes it so much more interesting than all the licensed games that were meant to just cash in on whatever was popular at that moment.

[@Dresdenstl]

I got this game for Christmas and I agree with your take on it. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't great either. Hallway walls blocking your shots was by far the worst thing about it. If you removed that and the weapon powerdowns it would be vastly better. I was mostly just happy to play a new game and thankful my parents didn't get me Tennis or some such.

[@Choralone422]

My parents bought this game for me shortly after it's release. I both loved and hated the game immensely. Loved the rendition of the Addams Family theme that played at the title screen. Loved how weird the game was. Loved how well the game was put together. At the same time I hated how Fester's weapon projectiles worked. I hated starting over at the beginning when you died. I hated how much of a bullet sponge the enemies were. I hated that there was no password or save system of any kind. It wasn't until well into the emulation era before I could finish the game via an invincibility cheat. Even with all of that I still enjoyed playing the game as a kid, at least when I wanted a serious challenge.

[@RBWillis1022]

I owned this as a kid. The only way to play this is with a turbo controller. I used the NES Advantage. If not, you will tire out your thumb because there is no holding the button down for rapid fire. This game was a grind fest. I always enjoyed it in doses, but never enough to finish it. I think I enjoyed the idea of what it’s potential could have been and not what it was

[@josheldridge8546]

I got festers quest and anticipation for my birthday one year. I never made it past the second boss (hardly ever made it to the first one), but I actually enjoyed wandering around the map and blasting stuff. *sigh* economically-based Stockholm Syndrome is a hell of a drug.

[@Foxxy999]

Thanks for a fun video on a rough morning

[@Dark.Shingo]

This game was my jam! A friend lent it to me and I couldn't finish it until years later on an emulator. Despite its shortcomings I love it.

[@subtlewhatssubtle]

My cousin had this, and it was a baffling game. I recognized the characters (the old Addams Family B&W sitcom aired in syndication where I lived around the late 80s, early 90s) but we had no idea how to actually progress because his box showed up without a manual. I'm surprised we got as far as the sewers.

[@IanSane]

Back in the glory days of the early 2000's when NES games were thought of as old junk you could get for a song, a friend of mine had a friend of his give him his old NES with a handful of games. Fester's Quest was one of them and quickly established as the worst game in the lot. At the time though we all assumed it was a tie-in to the Addams Family movie as we didn't go to the trouble to pay attention to the copyright date. I only realized that it pre-dates the movie a few years ago and it is rather shocking that they thought this was a good IP to obtain. On a side note, my friend already had an NES so he sold the second one to me, a key event in my retro game collecting hobby. Though he only sold his duplicate games and Fester's Quest was not one of them so thankfully I don't have it polluting my collection.

[@gen1exe]

i had this game. it was sort of fun. i got to the last boss once and then died and was like "im not doing that again"

[@JeremyParish]

I genuinely do not know how anyone is supposed to be able to beat that boss without cheating. And to have to start over again at the very beginning if you take four hits? Unbelievable.

[@velarantube]

@@JeremyParish Invisibility Potions, alternating with Healing, while utilizing Max whip and assaulting it with Missiles. Destroy doors, first, then dodge while locking on w/Missiles... Make sure you're heled up, and watch for end of Invisiblity, and immediately use another one. Rins, and repeat until Bad Guy done... Did it in 2 tries! Could've been one, but I screwed up by trying Dynamite first... Honestly, to me, FQ final boss isn't all that hard in the roster of NES bosses... Especially end ones!

[@Athesies]

Nice to have a vid like this to get my mind off the election results for a few mins

[@ragsdale710]

Yeah I am so happy too

[@teruienages962]

@@ragsdale710 Sure smells a lot more like nazi in here, suddenly.

[@signaltome]

Oh boy. Speaking of Zelda.... I wanted the original Zelda 1 when I got my NES back in the day, but what I got was actually this game! Probably from a bargain bin because we did not have that much money. 😓 To be fair though, I played the hell out of it and though I never managed to FINISH it I got very far. I guess back then kids had to make due with what they got and be "happy" with it? I remember trading in this and a few other games to afford Mario 3, which was a MUCH better game overall but sometimes I still regret it somehow. It had stuck with me for so long. Oh well! 😀

[@jorymil]

It's amazing how much more expensive games were back then, relatively speaking. Say your folks made 40k/year and a game sold for $40. That'd be like $100 today. But everything these days is optical media, SD, or downloaded. 4 decades of advancements in technology make a difference :-)

[@jamesmoss3424]

Uncle Fester is my favorite character from The Addams Family. 😀👍

[@MGPCycling]

Had this game when I was a kid and LOVED it big time. So much fun 😊 ❤️

[@KasumiKenshirou]

My cousin had this game and I played it a few times, but a lot of the stuff shown in this video (e.g., first person sections) I have never seen before. I think my uncle bought it for her because he grew up with the show. I only had a Commodore 64, so this game looked great compared to 99% of the games on that computer that I owned.

[@LorenHelgeson]

As rough as this game is, and how difficult and unpleasant it is to muscle one's way through, that overworld theme is an absolutely solid bop. Sunsoft NES music at its best. Right up there with the likes of Shatterhand, Journey to Silius and Lagrange Point.

[@ThomasBates_AZ]

So in 1989, for whatever reason or how, SunSoft sent me a free copy of Fester’s Quest. I was 16, a freshman in high school. Guessing Nintendo Power sent SunSoft a list of gamers in that age range? Anyhow, I believe the letter basically said to enjoy the game, and talk about it with friends. Basically Facebook before Facebook. Yes, I hated the game, and never got very far. I think I ended up trading it for Marble Madness with someone, which, is still a better game, if short.

[@MichaelHeide]

I never had a chance to play this. I don't know if it even came out here in Germany. But whenever I see footage of this game, it reminds me of a proto-Zombies-Ate-My-Neighbors. Must be the suburbia setting.

[@Claire_Ballard]

There are many shmaltsy messages to youtubers, and this one is mine. Thank you for what you do, Mr. Parish. I'll be using your channel as I always do. An emotional safety blanket for the emotional times. As a Trans woman in America, I'm gonna need a bigger blanket. I'm glad I have this one. Thanks for the jabs against the worst of the patriarchal absurdities many ignore. They comfort me.

[@EriChanTheRetroGamerNerd]

Yep, this is exactly what I do. From one woman to another, gaming has been a lifelong comfort, and when you've played as many as I have, what else is there to do but obsessively and exhaustively document all of them? Parrish's and RndStranger's chronological overviews make my day. Thank you @JeremyParish. ♥️

[@jorymil]

Big heart to you - I can't imagine how difficult it is to be trans, period, let alone in these narrow-minded times.

[@EriChanTheRetroGamerNerd]

@@jorymil It tends to be more PC games than console games, but let's just say that trans women sinking into video games for hundreds of hours to escape the horrors of the world and our own dysphoria is practically a cliche in the trans community for a reason. 😂

[@JeremyParish]

In my experience, the best parts of the retro gaming community are powered by the enthusiasm and dedication of cool trans women. Much respect.

[@Claire_Ballard]

@@EriChanTheRetroGamerNerd I think me being Trans and my competency at Shmups is directly linked, lol. A nice escape indeed

[@TheSingularitarian]

This game was AWESOME!

[@PullingTheBasement]

I clamored to pick up a copy of this, but I have no idea why. I just thought it looked cool. There was enough good stuff in it for me to tolerate the difficulty. ("Tolerate" = "play the same first third of the game over and over until the rental was due back")

[@holdingpattern245]

I liked the show quite a bit as a kid, I think John Astin was even doing a sort of kid-friendly performance, very extravagant and cheerful and attentive to his kids, and the show is really visual and imaginative and has a slightly twisted sense of humor which kids tend to appreciate, all these elements carried over to the 1990 movie which I know for certain was loved by kids.

[@BlackHoleForge]

I remember playing this game back in the day. I remember picking it up several years after it came out, when The Addams family movies were out. Now that I see the second blaster master, I see where the gun mode with fester came from. That was so frustrating.

[@TheBechtloff]

I was a kid then and I was well aware of the Addams Family. I had seen both the original show and the old cartoon from the 70s or something. This might not have been the age of constant franchise reboots and revivals but it was certainly the age of the reruns. Myself and a lot of kids I knew watched old shows like that, Get Smart, Munsters, Giligans Island. That stuff was just on constantly in afternoon and weekend slots networks needed to fill.

[@ginormousaurus8394]

There were also NES games based on The Three Stooges, Gilligan's Island, and The Lone Ranger, so an NES game based on an old TV show like The Addams Family wasn't that unusual.

[@velarantube]

Also Mission Impossible!

[@ginormousaurus8394]

@@velarantube The Mission: Impossible game for the NES was based on the revival of the TV series that ran from 1988 to 1990.

[@velarantube]

@@ginormousaurus8394 You are correct! I had completely forgot about the revival; but now you mentioned it, I think it was in syndication on my local ABC affiliate on Saturday mornings later on in the 90s, IIRC... Someone I was just talking about this subject(I mentioned this video...) to brought up MI NES in response, so I threw it in as an addition to your list!(I told him about the newer series, and he was like: 'Wait, wut?' Looks like I'm not the only one who didn't remember MI '88! :-)) Thanx for the clarification! 😀

[@visionop8]

You’re rich classmates were simply not buying the game lol. Fester’s Quest was often discounted at Toys R Us for $19.99 in 1990 along with Blaster Master, Abadox, Cybernoid, Stealth ATF and Street Fighter 2010. Me and my sisters had a hard time convincing my mother to spend the then usual $49.99 on NES games 😆I was very familiar with the games at that price point as they made up probably about 70 percent of our collection then.

[@jorymil]

Hey... Blaster Master was good at least. For me, games were birthday or Christmas presents or rentals. No convincing otherwise unless I paid for it myself.

[@visionop8]

@@jorymil Oh yeah some of those games were definitely gems and Blaster Master was one of them

[@MrERLoner]

Blaster Fester Master

[@keithfta789]

This was one of those that I wish I could enjoy.

[@Naturelover-u4h]

Yeah Milo and Otis! 🤔 oh Sorry

[@thecunninlynguist]

I rented this often but often had no idea wtf to do and i always hated when i accidentally downgraded my weapons

[@redline78inc1]

One of the few games my dad liked and beat

[@MalcolmmStromberg]

Got this one year as a kud. Wanted to like it so much. I had Batman and Grenlins 2 and loved those sunsoft games. Fun fact Addams family and the Munsters came out the the same year and premiered days apart

[@JohnZyski]

I liked the game, especially the opening song when this was current. I remember beating the game, not sure if I used a cheat code or not.