Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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A playthrough of Ocean's 1993 license-based platformer for the NES, The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt.

Based on the then-current The Addams Family cartoon, this is the sequel to Ocean's The Addams Family NES game from 1991 (youtu.be/3R8OLWFHxXc). However, unlike the SNES version of Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt (youtu.be/tVg8m_BYqcw), this one is not an original work. Rather, it is a heavily pruned remake of the 1992 16-bit The Addams Family game (youtu.be/0SxxqeSYhjU).

Thankfully, the gameplay here fares far better than the first one on the NES, which nailed the presentation but was undone by its half-baked physics and collision detection. In Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt, hits generally connect when you expect them to, and you can reliably land jumps. The level design has been scaled back considerably - some of the stages have been reduced to a handful of small rooms - but it's all mechanically solid. It's way too easy, though.

But what an assault on the senses it is! Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt presentation is exceedingly poor. There's no music to accompany the gameplay, and most areas feature flat, single-color backgrounds. It's garish, it's ugly, and it would've looked half-assed in 1987, let alone 1993. It leaves me with the sense that they got the gameplay into shape, and then, instead of properly finishing the job, shoved it out the door as quickly as possible.

The plopping of lazily cobbled together assets onto a competent platformer foundation makes for an ugly, mediocre, but ultimately playable game. Had Ocean paired the creativity and presentation of the first NES Addams game with the playability of Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt, they might've had a good game on their hands.

But they didn't. The only NES The Addams Family game that ended up being fun was Fester's Quest (youtu.be/rio0DbVUFTM). You know, the one without Ocean's name on it.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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