The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt (SNES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
996A playthrough of Ocean's 1993 licensed-based platformer for the Super Nintendo, The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt.
Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt is the SNES-exclusive direct sequel to Ocean's 1992 game (The Addams Family), and was based on the 1992 cartoon rather than the 1991 movie like the first game was.
It plays extremely similarly to The Addams Family, and with very good reason. In an interview, one of the game's programmers, James Higgins, said that Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt was made in an unbelievably short four months by building off of the first game's framework.
He also noted that the game pulled off tricks with the Super NES that weren't possible on the Genesis, and that the gameplay was tweaked to accommodate those that found The Addams Family to be too easy of a game.
Hrmm. Sure, The Addams Family wasn't an extraordinarily difficult game, but did most people really find it easy enough that they would've written to Ocean to complain?
Anyways, it feels very much like Gomez's previous adventure in many ways. The controls are virtually identical, many of the music tracks are remixed versions of older ones, and the game is still held together by a hub-area.
But for all of their surface similarities, you might be surprised at just how different the experience is of playing the two.
Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt is without question an absolutely gorgeous game by 16-bit standards. Pugsley is animated better than most 2D platforming protagonists you're likely to see from the 16-bit era, and the stages all look like they've been pulled straight from the television show with their vivid colors, non-stop use of special effects, and impressive (and super distracting) use of animation. The sound is just as good - even though much of it is recycled, the compositions are great and the sound quality is impeccable for a cartridge-based title. Ocean has always known how to pretty up a game, and Pugsley is an excellent example of their skill in that regard.
The downside to all of this is that, while it is a much nicer looking and sounding game than The Addams Family was, pretty much everything else has suffered in the sequel. The non-linearity has been stripped way back - most levels now have a single main path through them with a couple small secret rooms to find, whereas in the original every stage had countless alternate paths.
But the big problem is the difficulty level. In their attempt to make the game "challenging," Ocean utterly destroyed any semblance of enjoyment someone might find in playing this miserable game. 99% of the hazards and enemies are placed in ways that are virtually guaranteed to damage you at every turn, 1-ups are rare, and there are many occasions where missing a single jump will force you to repeat huge chunks of a stage.
You might have noticed that the ending in this video says to try a harder setting. I have no idea how one might access that harder setting, since it doesn't seem to be addressed in either the manual or the game itself. But even if I did figure that out, I wouldn't play it. I looked up the ending on the "harder" mode, and it's the same exact thing, but it tells you that you're a great player instead of telling you to try again. It was complete misery playing this game to learn it well enough to get through for this recording, and I have no intention of touching it again for a very long time, if ever.
It's a shame that this sadistic streak so thoroughly permeates the game, because it had potential - it was built on the skeleton of a totally solid game - but responsive controls, excellent graphics and sound, and a fun license can't save a game that is so determined to punish you from the moment you hit start.
I generally try to restrain myself with my language in these reviews because I know that not everyone appreciates vulgarity, but I'm making an exception for this one.
Are you listening, Ocean? Fuck you.
/end review
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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