The Addams Family

SNES - Pretty good but not particularly impressive. Of particular note are the backgrounds for the hall of stairs, and portrait gallery, but most of the game tends to use a lot of repeating patterns and textures that are fairly simplistic.

Mega Drive - Very similar to the SNES version but there's slightly less detail in some sections of this version, the biggest downgrade of which being the outside areas which used to have parallax trees and a moon, but is now a fairly simple blue and black background design., the other differences are usually more minor (such as Uncle Fester's portrait being missing).

For the most part though this version's detail is basically the same as in the SNES version. with the disparity in the overall graphics based more around colour use, than detail (more on that in the colour section).

Atari ST - The base detail is pretty similar to the Mega Drive version, though the graphics have been noticeably compacted to make way for a new status bar at the left hand side.

Amiga - The detail in this version is very bad. The foreground detail is comparable to the other versions but unfortunately there's absolutely no background detail at all for most of the game, just pure blackness.

SNES - Not bad. Everything looks pretty nicely coloured and blended, but the game definitely doesn't use the SNES hardware to its fullest in this area as some of the areas tend to look a little bland.

Mega Drive - Overall colour use is alright, but this is probably the area where the Mega Drive version takes the biggest hit in comparison to the SNES game, the colours used in this version are much more ill fitting here, and don't blend as well as they did in that version, giving a grainy appearance to many of the environments. One of the sections which has noticeably inferior colour use is the portrait gallery (see screen shot 2), with the portraits using a less natural looking skin colour.

Generally most of the time in this version there's less colours used on screen, though there are a few exceptions here and there, such as the kitchen (see screenshot 3) which contains a few more colours than before.

Atari ST - Adequate. Probably the worst colour use out of all the ports but at least it has backgrounds, which puts it ahead of the Amiga version by default.

Amiga - Just like the detail section, due to the lack of backgrounds the Amiga version falls down in the colour area too.

SNES - The animation is fairly good, it moves pretty smoothly and has a nice selection of different animations.

Mega Drive - Pretty much exactly the same as the SNES version.

Atari ST - Not too bad, though certainly not as smooth as in the console versions.

Amiga - Much worse than the other three, the enemies here especially move in a noticeably less smooth manner, this is mainly due to the game's much lower frame rate.

SNES - It scrolls very well, and has many sections containing background parallax. The parallax here in certain levels is actually very nice and really helps to bring those sections to life.

Mega Drive - The main scrolling is also very good, however this version is missing a lot of the SNES version's parallax and as such looks much flatter overall.

Atari ST - Bad scrolling. This version uses push screen scrolling instead of the constant scrolling found in the other versions, it looks a little ugly and has a slightly detrimental effect on the gameplay, but not anything too serious. This version is also missing the SNES' parallax (as a whole the computer ports seem to have more in common with the Mega Drive port).

Amiga - Slightly poorer scrolling but it does the job. There's no parallax (Not possible as there's no backgrounds)

SNES - The music here is actually very good, its catchy, and with pretty high quality sound too.

Mega Drive - The music quality is actually awesome and really uses the sound chip quite well, but unfortunately there are a few tracks missing from this version (the conservatory and boss tunes for instance)

Atari ST - Not all the tracks made the cut in this version either, though more seem to have done than in the Mega Drive port. Due to the much lower overall quality of the sound I'd still have to say that this is much weaker than the Mega Drive version overall though, whether it has more tracks or not.

Amiga - Here the music is much more comparable to the console versions, though I'd say its slightly worse in quality than the Mega Drive game (which is rarely the case). The conservatory tune seems to be the only missing track from this version.

SNES - They're alright. One thing I do think is notable is that the sound effects seem to change based on the environment, it may just be my imagination but I'm sure have more of an echo when you're underground.

Mega Drive - Pretty good, but there's fewer sound effects here than in the SNES version.

Atari ST - Adequate, they just about do the minimum required of them.

Amiga - Adequate, but better than the Atari ST version's.

SNES - The Addams Family is a hop n' bop platformer with a big emphasis on exploration. Instead of having a rigid level based structure the game contains one huge mansion all of which is open to the player right from the beginning of the game, allowing the player choice of the direction he wishes to take, and emphasising exploration of the different routes, the ultimate goal is to find and rescue all of your missing family members, each of which is guarded by a boss.

Outside of the platforming elements there's also some adventuring aspects included here, as heart containers (similar to the ones found in the Zelda games) can be discovered which give a permanent boost to your health, and some weapon pick-ups, such as golf balls (which give you the ability to throw projectiles), and a sword.

The layout and freedom of the design helps to create a very deep and rewarding gameplay experience.

Mega Drive - This version pretty much plays identically to the SNES version, there's just one small change to the layout I found which takes place in the chimney section of the game.

Atari ST - The most important thing here is that this version is missing the golf ball and sword power-ups (unfortuantely this is probably just due to the rarity of developers making use of two button controllers).

The lower quality scrolling also affects the gameplay a little, and there seems to be fewer enemies than usual.

Amiga - Unfortunately this version is also missing the golf ball and sword power-ups.

The low frame rate has a mildly detrimental effect on the gameplay as it makes it slightly harder to control Gomez, and makes it a little more difficult to judge the enemy movements at times.

SNES - Not a lot to be honest, there's a beginning intro with Thing but that's about it. This version is also censored (the bird boss at the top of the tree usually tries to poo on you, but this doesn't happen in this version)

Mega Drive - The SNES intro is here, along with a new secondary intro of the mansion. There's also no censorship here

Atari ST - Much like the SNES version but with no censorship.

Amiga - Same as the Atari ST.

All versions of the game are actually very good, and all manage to retain the Addams Family's excellent gameplay, but due to the downgrade in graphics and missing power-ups the two computer ports are out of the running for first place. I would say that the Amiga port is probably the worst version, as the missing background graphics do hurt the experience, but whilst minimalist even that version still manages to be a very playable game.

In the end the winner just has to be the SNES version, the Mega Drive port is very good (even managing to win out in a few areas, as well as being uncensored) but overall doesn't manage to equalise the SNES port in either graphics or sound.