With Halloween coming right up, and Leathco taking a look at some horror based games, I thought I would take a look back at a somewhat hated game and address it's 2 biggest complaints. Yes, the famous (infamous?) Fester's Quest, which was released by Sunsoft in 1989. This game has been the butt of jokes over the years for being difficult and having a worthless weapon. Having this game in my collection since it's release, I've actually beaten this game 10+ times. Granted, It's been almost 18 years since I've played it.

The basic concept of the game is that Fester has to save his town from an alien invasion. Along the way you'll acquire new items and powers from the other members of the family, travel through sewers, and defeat 5 bosses until reaching and destroying the UFO.

Complaint #1- The gun stinks! The bullets hit the walls and you can't hit anything with it!

If you don't power it up, this is indeed true. Right from the start of the game the first thing you should ever worry about before entering the sewers is to reach the eighth level for your weapon. This attack fills the entire width of most of the corridors you'll encounter throughout the game with three diamonds side by side. If you have a turbo controller, will tear through most smaller enemies before you even see them on your screen. Enemies like the rats and low level frogs. There are also green slime enemies that will multiply while being attacked, and this weapon will make quick work of them as well.

At one point in the game you'll get a whip, which can be levelled up as well and is more useful on certain enemies than the gun was. The final whip level gives you a flame whip via Castlevania 2, so yeah, when all else fails, use fire. :p

"See the yellow/green bullet? Yeah....get rid of it.
Grab that blue "Gun" power up until you're shooting triple barreled diamonds."

Complaint #2- Only 2 hits and you're dead? You have to start from the beginning after?

You can actually increase your hit boxes to 4. The first upgrade is in the while building prior to the first boss. The second can be found near the Addams Family house through a secret path in the bushes on the left hand side. The most difficult parts of this game are mostly the enemies found later in the game, and the final boss. Everything else is fairly easy. The bosses have a pattern to them that make them almost a joke, with just their health being the biggest concern. You're also giving potions to heal yourself throughout the game, and there are hotdog stands that you can use to replenish your health.

Heading back to the beginning of the game can stink. If you don't like replaying areas over again, this can be annoying and can cause you to just stop playing the game. Looking back at the NES days, remember all of those games with limited continues, high difficulty, and maybe a chance that there might be a code to help you out? How many of those games are seen as classics and praised by retro gamers? Yup, Fester's Quest isn't as bad when stacked up to those statistics is it?

Sure the game didn't really win any awards, but for practically $1-5 out of pocket you can easily spend a night or weekend enjoying the game.