Addams Family Pinball Game
They're spooky, a little kooky, and on the Game Gear, they're boring in this repetitive side-scroller by Flying Edge. The Addams Family should seriously consider some family counseling.
The Addams Family pinball machine is the best-selling game since the 1930s, having sold 20,270 units. Manufactured by Midway (under the Bally name), it is a solid state electronic game. It was based on the 1991 movie of the same name and features custom speech (mostly drawn from the movie) by the movie’s stars, Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston. 'The Addams Family' has a flipper that not only is controlled by the player's flipper button but also is caused by the game programming to flip at certain points in game play. One earlier form of 'auto-flipping' appears on Williams' 1953 'Palisades'. This game broke all previous sales records for flipper games.
Our hands-on with Addams Family on the Pinball Arcade. We tried the game on PC. Bobby King, lead designer on Pinball Arcade talked us through the table from its creation to playing tips. The Addams Family is a pinball machine from March 1992, manufactured by Bally Manufacturing Co. And designed by Pat Lawlor. Addams Family was at the time, and remains to this day, the most commercially successful pinball machine, selling 20,270 units, 40 more than Bally's Eight Ball which held that position before since 1977. 1,000 more were to follow later in a special Edition.
The Family that Plays Together
As in the Genesis version, you guide Gomez through graveyards, haunted mansions, and hidden rooms, solving puzzles and searching for other members of The Family. You clear out enemies by bouncing on their heads. The head-jumping thing may suit Mario just fine, but Gomez seems ill at ease with all that hoppirf and boppin'. You often fall into crevices or onto spikes before you even know what's happening (later you'll be able to enlist Thing as a shield). Enemies run the gamut from A to B, with a lot of skeletons and ghosts.
The graphics and sound are detailed but repetitive (you can see minor creatures like the carnivorous plants, but the Bone Rooms are all the same). The enemies are one-dimensional and easy to avoid. The music is also very repetitive. The Addams Family theme song will be burned into your brain.
A Family Matter
The game is long and involved, but if you could channel surf on your Game Gear, you'd probably be watching something else right now.
If you're tired of repetitive side-scrollers with little to offer but a brand name (the Flinstones, Rocky and Bullwin-kle), then stay away from this family. But, if you've got time (and brain cells) to kill, you may want to go over to the house and see how the Addamses are doing.
ProTips:
Addams Family Pinball Video Game
- Bounce on the carnivorous plants in the beginning of this level and you'll find some food.
- To get into the house, travel to the right of the first level until you can go no further. Then press Button 2, and you'll come to the room with the skeleton. Bounce on his head three times and he coughs up the key.