The Sega Master System version of The Addams Family is very good. It features an interesting player character in Gomez, in this one wearing a blue suit, who can jump and climb through a complex set of levels in order to rescue his other family members.

All the while holding his hand, distinctively, in his jacket pocket…

When jumping, Gomez does look like he’s about to let out a big “wahooo!“. I think you could call his jump “exuberant” at best, or “bloody daft” at worst. But it does stand out in the pantheon of videogame jumps.

Something I’ve noticed, having played pretty much all the versions of this game now, is that there are three different types of it. Type one: the version that allows you to climb all over the mansion at the beginning (SNES, Megadrive, Atari ST, Amiga and others) and type two: the one where people throw annoying balls out of the front windows of the mansion (Master System, Game Gear). The third type is the anomaly. The one that doesn’t fit any other pattern, it just goes off on its own (NES, ZX Spectrum). The Master System version of The Addams Family definitely fits into type two. Type twos also make you go fetch a key before you can get into the mansion. Type ones don’t – you can get in straight away, without a key. Type threes can be anything.

Personally, I think the Master System version of The Addams Family is excellent fun and is more than able to provide hours of entertainment and challenge in a cute and spooky setting.

The Addams Family on the Master System was developed by Ocean Software and first published in 1993. Flying Edge published it in North America and Acclaim Japan in, well, Japan of course. 🙂

More: The Addams Family (video game) on Wikipedia