Also nichts grundlegend Neues am Screen, aber mal ehrlich: sooo viel Neues hatte das Movie ja auch nicht zu bieten, oder? Und genau wie der Film gehört auch das Spiel zur ganz netten aber letzten Endes doch eher harmlosen Sorte. Wenn wir trotzdem ein kleines bißchen enttäuscht sind, liegt es vor allem an den Vorschußlorbeeren, die dem Game allerorten verpaßt wurden - von einem "Mario-Killer" war da gar die Rede! Schwamm drüber, eilen wir lieber Papa Gomez zu Hilfe.

Das Familienoberhaupt der Grüsel-Sippe sitzt nämlich plötzlich und unerwartet allein im gemütlichen Häuschen, weil seine Anverwandten allesamt entführt wurden. Soviel Ruhe verkraftet der Mann einfach nicht, also rafftet er sich auf, um nach seinen Lieben zu suchen.

Das Suchgebiet umfaßt insgesamt fünf Abschritte, die alle im oder ums Addams'sche Anwesen herum liegen. Bereits nach den ersten zwei, drei hüpfen fällt dabei die unverkennbare Konsolen-Orientierung von Grafik und Gameplay auf - Vater Gomez hat schon rein optisch eine gewisse Ähnlichkeit mit Bruder Mario!

Genau wie bei den meisten "Konsolisten" wird auch hier massenhaft gehüpft, gelaufen und geduckt, später kann man dann mit dem "Fez-Chopter" auch ein bißchen fliegen. Fallen sind da, um sie zu überwinden. Dollar-Boni, Energie und Extra-Leben, um sie einzusacken, und (etwas abstrakte) Gegner, um sie totzuhüpfen. Hat man schließlich auch den obligaten Obermotz am Levelende überwunden, ist wieder ein Familienmitglied gerettet - das sich meist nicht einmal bedankt.

Auf der Habenseite des Familienkontos findet man das überwiegend fair gestaltete Leveldesign (fair aber hart, echt hart!), eine solide Stickabfrage und die knuddelige Präsentation, Es gibt ein nettes, bloß ziemlich kurzes Intro mit der körperlosen Hand, die Animationen sind brauchbar, und der begleitende Addams-Song geht ebenso in Ordnung wie die Standardgeräusche.

Doch übermäßig berauschend ist das alles halt auch wieder nicht, vor allem die Grafik hätte etwas abwechslungsreicher ausfallen müssen, um Oma wirklich aus dem Koma zu reißen. Schade auch, daß keine originellen Extrawaffen die fünf Bildschirmleben versüßen und die geheimen Bonusräume so gut versteckt wurden, daß selbst der Osterhase von Neid erblassen muß - bei unseren Testspielen hatten wir so unsere Probleme welche zu finden.

Unter dem Strich bleibt also ein ambitioniertes und auch recht unterhaltsames Jump & Run im typischen Konsolen-Stil, zum ganz großen Süchtigmacher wie Mario einer ist, fehlt hier allerdings noch eine Menge Feinschliff! (mm)

CREEPY
From his humble beginnings as the barrel-jumping hero in Donkey Kong, Mario has come a long way. Since Super Mario Brothers and its horizontally-scrolling platform action arrived with the first batch of NES consoles, virtually every platform game released since has been compared to it. However, courtesy of Ocean, the Amiga has its first 'real' threat to the Brooklyn Plumber, as those creepy, kooky, spooky, and ooky members of The Addams Family make their Amiga debut.

I got my first glimpse of The Addams Family during a visit to Ocean's Manchester HQ several months ago, and went away fairly impressed by the fun-looking platformer I saw. Since then, the game has come along in leaps and bounds - literally - and although little touches (such as the parallax scrolling the programming team had originally hoped for) have fallen by the wayside, The Addams Family is the closest the Amiga will get to a Mario game - and if that isn't the ultimate accolade, then I don't know what is...

KOOKY...
Taking notice of past licensed failures, Ocean have opted for the 'Hudson Hawk' route, adopting a single gamestyle rather than a mishmash of sub-games. It had always been Ocean's Gary Bracey's intention to rival Mario, and on perusing the film's script, he decided that Addams had the perfect setting for it.

The game is played within the Family's sprawling mansion, and this allows the game to be broken down into five distinct areas - i.e. wings of the building. The scenario tells of an evil property developer who is forwarding plans to flatten the mansion so that he can build a series of towerblocks on its estate.

Obviously, this has encountered resistance from the kooky clan, but such protestations have been silenced with the kidnapping of Granny, Morticia, Fester and the kids, leaving head of the house, Gomez, with little option but to scour the house's many dark corridors and rooms in search of them, and, in doing so, defeat the mysterious kidnappers.

Just as the scenario is far removed from that of the film, though, the Gomez sprite is equally unrelated to the film's Raul Julia character. With his squat physique, handlebar moustache and incredible running and jumping finesse, all Gomez requires is a set of red dungarees before the transformation into Mario is complete.
However, that said, Gomez can match Mario move for move, and even has a few extra tricks up his smoking jacket's sleeves. For example, a flying Fez (a Fez-Copter) can be found in some levels, and can be collected to get Gomez airborne and past particularly nasty areas.

MYSTERIOUS...
Starting in the hallway, five doors await Gomez's attentions. These form the entrances to the five wings, and contain a series of creature-infested rooms and the guarded members of the family. Behind these doors lie the garden, the kitchen, a dungeon, and other such rooms, and follow either a horizontally or eight-way scrolling path.

Ocean's studying all things Mario also shows up in the animation and control over Gomez. As can be expected, the joystick sends the moustachioed hero scurrying to and fro and pressing the fire-button prompts him to leap, but these simple controls belie the true athleticism of the sprite.

The length of each jump can be determined by keeping the joystick pressed in the direction Gomez is leaping, and his direction can also be altered mid-jump. The flexibility over the character is essential to the game, as to destroy the rampaging nasties. Gomez can either jump on them or avoid them. The jumping method is obviously the most favourable, as several thousand points are given as a reward, but avoidance is less rsky.

Each of the wings follows the set pattern of avoiding or killing the nasties until the door to the next area is found, and, ultimately, the 'Boss' creature guarding your family member is defeated. However, this simplicity is the basis for The Addams Family's complete playability. Nobody could ever say that Super Mario Brothers was the most taxing or original of games, but such is the implementation of the ideas and the ease of use of both Mario and, indeed, Gomez, that there's no room for unnecessary sub-games or complications.
So, what you get are hundreds of nasty-infested screens, all ready for a good bouncing. Additionally, Addams' nasties are all tied in with their respective levels, so the garden features horticultural horrors, whilst the kitchen has cutlery-wielding chefs and the like.

SPOOKY...
Gomez begins the game with a set of five lives, the length of which are determined by a series of hearts which act as energy indicators. These are steadily reduced should Gomez come into contact with a nasty or hit by one of the many swinging axes or rapid-firing cannons that form the game's plentiful static obstacles.

However, to replenish any lost health, throughout the game there are a series of Dollar signs which our agile hero can collect. Twenty-five of these money signs go towards an extra energy points, whilst a hundred grants Gomez with a much-needed extra life. The goodies don't stop there, though, and useful power-ups such as limited invulnerability, can also be collected.

With The Addams Family, Ocean have produced what is quite easily their best game yet - with the possible exception of the brilliant Rainbow Islands (but it is very, very close). Forget the likes of Batman: The Movie, the excellent Robocop III, and even Parasol Stars, The Addams Family is platform perfection.

Everything about the game, from the tinkly John Dunn music and effects to the little dust clouds Gomez kicks up when he skids to a stop, make it a polished-looking game - but as in Mario, the gameplay still outweighs the aesthetic pluses.

The complete control over the Gomez sprite, coupled with the devious layouts of traps, nasties and obstacles makes for a real challenge. Due to programming limitations, there's usually never more than three moving nasties on the screen at any one time, but they are timed to move or patrol so that it isn't really noticeable. In addition, these objects behave in such a way that they, too, can be used in your favour. For instance, above the flight path of a cannonball, there may be a series of Dollar signs and the only way to reach them is to jump in the path of the cannonball and bounce off it to reach them.

ALTOGETHER OOKY...
For anyone who has seen Mario in action on an NES or Super NES, then you need yearn no longer for the same style game. Addams may not be as busy or as fast as the Super Mario Brothers games, and I doubt that Gomez will attain the cult status of the Brooklyn U-bend fixer, but, even so, The Addams Family is a massive achievement.

It somehow ties in with the film without compromising its variety, and even manages to get across some of the film's darker humour. I'm not sure whether it's just because The Addams Family movie was crying out for a decent game based on it, or whether Ocean's programmers have simply pulled out all the stops to produce one of the best platform games ever, but whatever the reason for Addams' content and style, Ocean deserve to be rewarded.

It seems that they have listened to people complaining about the likes of Darkman, Total Recall, and Terminator II, and come up with the perfect answer. The Addams Family has instantly become of my all-time favourite games, residing up their with the likes of Kick Off II, Rainbow Islands and Jimmy White's Snooker, and as a decidedly picky git when it comes to what I'll actually play in my own time, that's a praise indeed.
Steal a copy if you have to, but this is an essential addition to every Amiga's software library. They're certainly ooky by me...

Back in the 1950's, cartoonist Charles Addams created the infamous Addams family, the inspiration for one of the smartest cult TV series ever made. This year, Columbia pictures released the film, and now Ocean has released the computer game starring all our old favourites: little Wednesday and and Pugsley, sumptuous Morticia, sexy Uncle Fester and gorgeous Gomez. Ah, if only all families contained such oddities! Imagine having a cousin with more body hair than Micheal Heseltine and a mother who swoons over Freddy Kreuger. Now that would be smart! Well, you can let your imagination run wild in Ocean's latest film licence.

The plot focuses on poor old Gomez, who returns home after a hard night in the Grave Digger's Arms to find that his family have disappeared. Have they run off to a Swiss finishing school to be trained in the manners of normal people? Or have they simply got fed up with a father whose eyes are googlier than Marty FeIdman's? Not on your nelly! What's happened is that the family's answer to Clive James, Uncle Fester, has lost his memory and fallen under the spell of that no-good dame, Abigail Craven. She's not the least bit interested in Uncle Fester's nether regions - she's a gold-digger at heart and only wants to get her mits on the Addams' hidden fortune. She's managed to get befuddled Fester on her side, as well as two other evil basts, Tully and the Judge.

Abigail has entered the family's mansion in Gomez's absence, and has managed to capture the other family members, imprisoning them in different areas of the mansion. It's up to you, as Gomez, to rescue your loved ones by finding and freeing your children, Pugsley, Wednesday and that old bat Granny by somehow restoring Fester's memory. After that, you're faced with the prospect of rescuing his 'Querrrida', who's been locked up in the under ground vaults, and the task of taking on the dastardly judge in the final conflict.

The game starts at the front door of the Addams mansion. Gomez has been given a note by Thing, containing words of advice. Thing's advice appear at different stages of the game - giving you extra help - but he's your only ally. Inside the mansion, you have a choice of doors to enter. It doesn't really matter which rooms you go into first, except that you'll only be able to find Morticia once you've rescued all the other members (handy for Bernard Manning types who have no desire to be reunited with their missus).

Each door eventually takes you to a big baddie - if you beat him, you reap a reward in the form of one of your long- lost relatives or a bonus heart. Hearts are quite handy little beauties - you start the game with two, which means you only need to be hit twice before buying the farm. Defeating the big, bad guys will earn you three extra lives, so you can have up to five lives at any one time.

There's loads of dosh to collect, in the form of twinkling dollar signs - save up 25 and, if need be, one of your hearts will be replenished. Collect $100 and you'll earn a one-up.

Gomez scores points every time he picks something up or kills a nastie by jumping on its head. There's a rather smart shield which makes Gomez indestructible for a limited length of time, natty trainers which allow him to move faster and jump further, a bouncy springboard, and a fez hat which turns into a fezi-copter when Gomez jumps into it so that he can fly around.

Seemingly inaccessible areas can often be reached by finding a switch and flicking it off. Sometimes switches are hidden in a patterned block - hitting these will often make platforms appear. If you're a bit crap, you can use the Continue option, which sends you back to the hallway, but you'll retain the same amount of hearts and rescued family members. However, if you're skill, you'll be rewarded with a password that, in effect, allows you to save your game.

It's up to you to rescue the kookiest family ever by exploring the kitchen, the torture chamber, music room, conservatory, hallway, underground vault and the super spooky graveyard.

Amaya: Ah, 'the game of the film of the TV series' - much hyped and long awaited. But has it been worth the wait? You bet it has! Playability is the name of this baby - with a capital 'P'. Gomez is the name of the hero and my, what a star he is! He's a real little mover - ducking, diving, climbing ropes, even flying.

However, there's nothing devastatingly original about The Addams Family - it borrows some very popular features from some very famous games. Mario is the first one that springs to mind, what with all the 'jumping on people's heads' antics and the acquisition of a Super Gomez bonus. There are also spiky spines a la Sonic and little Super Mario-esque advice boxes. But who says copying is a bad thing? It's okay to borrow the best bits from successful titles and whack 'em all together if the end product is a glorious stew of sizzling gameplay. And that's just what Ocean has done.

The graphics are cute, although nothing extraordinary. Best of all is the way Gomez has been animated - his eyes googling away as he stamps his foot impatiently at your obvious incompetence. It doesn't seem to matter that the graphics aren't amazing, because the gameplay's so addictive that it lifts the game above your Mr Average platform romp. Another big plus is the size of the game - it's huge, with over 1,000 screens and loads of hidden rooms (often hidden behind fake walls). The difficulty level is pitched just right - easy to get it into but hard enough to get you hooked. The soundtrack is also incredibly catchy - sometimes the desire to partake in the family finger clicking tradition is so strong that you just give in subconsciously. In certain parts it's surprisingly easy to die, so make sure you gather loads of dosh for a reserve supply of lives.

There are loads of neat touches in the game, such as the rather fab fezi-copters (or 'Tommy Cooper hats'), which handily turn up in different stages in the game. With these you can fly around all over the shop, reaching those hitherto impossible nooks and crannies.

Gomez, the petal, also does a fetching doggy paddle whenever he falls into water, which enables him to get even more points by bumping off all those bothersome fish. He can pick golf balls up to kill enemies and a fencing sword for a bit of hack and slashing. One of my favourite bits was Lurch's questionable musical skills at the family's piano. The more members of the family I rescued, the more tuneful Lurch's playing became.

And what of the nasties? They're here in force, with dangerous end of level baddies, like the Executioner in the torture chamber who bears an uncanny resemblance to that master of computer games, Patrick Moore. Lethal knights in shining armour come at you in the hallway, whilst in the furnace, apart from the drawback that you can't actually touch anything, you're treated to blazing creatures who look like they've OD'd on Ready Brek.

The Addams Family is fab, cutesy, platform fun. I almost wish I could run away and marry it. (But she's engaged to Monkey Island 2! Girls, eh? They're so fickle. Ed.)