
	Platform NES Genre Adventure Developer Sunsoft Publisher Sun Corporation of America Year released 1989
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Fester's Quest

fester's quest,nes

Raise your hand if you remember the classic NES game, The Legend of Zelda. Well, Fester’s Quest is no Zelda, but it sure tries hard.

Aliens have invaded and it’s up to Uncle Fester (and the rest of the Addams family) to save the day using a variety of guns, whips, and explosives. Along the way, Fester will have to crush more than a few alien baddies before forcing them off the planet. There are multiplying pools of slime, leaping frogs, alien mushrooms, etc. to blast. Actually, all of the enemies are descendents from Legend of Zelda. Why bother beating a dead horse? Fester’s Quest sucks everything from Zelda and attempts to make it it’s own. Fester’s TNT equals Link’s bombs. Link’s flame equals Fester’s

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lightbulbs. Members of the Addams family sell you items just as the merchants do for Link in Zelda. Hell, even the boomerang has an equivalent in Fester’s whip. There are only a few deviations – actually, no there aren’t.

Okay, one difference: the "3D" sections as you enter houses of end bosses. It adds a layer of depth but doesn’t make the game any harder. I guess there’s one other difference. Fester can level-up his weapons be

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simply killing loads of enemies to find blue colored "gun" and "whip" icons, instead of questing for them as in Zelda, which added another level of complexity. Hey, I’ve just thought of another difference – screens are a lot bigger in Fester’s Quest (no single-screen then moving to the edge of the picture to get to the next area). And Fester’s adventure is a whole lot shorter, too.

Even the graphics are reminiscent of Zelda. There I go again, beating a dead horse!

The music in Fester’s Quest is great, especially the opening theme. It’s the best I’ve heard on the NES and a really good rendition of the Addams Family theme.

At the end of the day, Fester’s Quest attempts to cash-in on Zelda’s success but it only manages to be a lowly clone. At the time of its release I really enjoyed this game, but now I see it for what it really is.

- Omni