Today we are going to take a look at The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem. This action platformer is set in the famous Addams Family franchise promises to make you laugh with its humor. Whether it can deliver on its promise is the question we will try to answer today. The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem is available on Steam for 39 Euro and 99 cents or your regional equivalent.
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I’m reasonably sure you’ve heard of the Addams Family. They were the original emos, way back before (for some strange reason) the world succumbed to its emo phase. Originally created as a comic for The New Yorker magazine way back in the sixties they managed to hold on to their popularity for decades. Many of us grew up watching the animated series but the younger ones know best the 2019 movie which aimed to relaunch the franchise and in autumn of 2021, we got its sequel. And it’s this movie on which The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem tries to build.
The very first disappointment comes early. The Addams Family iconic sound is not there. Just some generic music. Then, the game allows you to pick one of our characters. Either one of the parents – Gomez and Morticia, or one of the children – Wednesday and Pugsley. Sadly, there isn’t an option to play as – in my opinion – the most fun characters from the franchise – the crazy uncle Fester and the servent Lurch. Seriously a shame but this game has bigger problems than just four playable characters.
So, how the game actually plays? You start in the family mansion when suddenly a completely unknown character named Kyle visits you and tells you he is buying it. Doesn’t matter you disagree, he just buys it and turns it into an escape room and a buffet. But since the Addams Family doesn’t want to move they need to figure out what exactly he did and find the mysteries of their mansion.
So, you move to the first “world”. Yeah, world is a bit of an overestimation as it is literally just the dining room. But this is where your platforming adventure begins. I’ll start by saying it is a good idea to play on a controller rather than a keyboard because while using a keyboard the controls suck. But that’s true for the controller too. You will soon notice the game suffers from huge lags in controls. You push a button and nothing happens for what seems like an eternity and you’ll suffer plenty of damage from one of the game's generic enemies because of it.
Your goal is to finish up to three smaller quests in each of the rooms for which you’ll earn the family crest and get to the end of the room. Usually, these quests are something like collect all the coins or going a bit of course to kill a few enemies. Nothing great. This is because The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem is a boring game. All the characters are the same coming with only a jump and an attack. There is no real progression and the four different abilities you get to use don’t save it as you can always use only one in a given level.
I also mentioned coins briefly. Maybe you can get something cool for those right? No. So after you gather the needed amount to finish the level you will ignore them completely. The enemies are boring as well and I dare to say lame because again, you do not get anything for killing them, so you will just run around them. And the levels? Interchangeable and generic as hell. And even with that, there are only eight of them! The developers tried to mix in a few minigames that focus on gathering points or avoiding traps but because of the awful controls, you will not want to partake in them.
The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem can’t offer anything that generic boredom. In just a few quick minutes you will learn to despise it. Perhaps the only fun part is the morbid humor of the Addams Family itself. But this essential part of the franchise gleams out only in a few select interactions between the family members. The game just feels cheap and unfinished. The graphics feel like you’ve gone to your attic, taken out your old Playstation, and found a very early cheap PS3 game.
Conclusion
So… in conclusion: The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem is a game that will take six hours out of your life. It’s generic through and through and it’s obviously meant to get money out of the pockets of parents and grandparents of children who liked the new Addams Family movies. But otherwise, it almost feels like copyright abuse. It’s awful, boring, and nobody of sound mind should ever buy it.