Innaugural WR and Eligible Bounty Claim on \"Fester's Q

Innaugural Fastest Completion Record on \"Fester's Quest\" (NES)
As reported on October 11th, 2004


Hello fellow gamers:

It's taken me nearly six months, but I'm finally catching up on the
many record that have been submitted this year, one of which is towards my year 2004 \"Bounties\".

Rodrigo Lopes, who hails from Brazil and who is a member of the
illustrious \"Metroid Team\", becomes the first qualifier for the \"bounty\"
that I set forth on the NES title \"Fester's Quest\". His completion time is
a blazing fast 26 minutes and 58 seconds (26:58) from the instant the
start button was pressed, to the instant that the final blow was delivered
to the boss alien at game-end.

This is the record to beat for the year 2004 bounty, and based on my
own personal experience at the title, it will be a tough one to surpass,
let alone match.

I chose the many \"bounty\" titles from a combination of those titles
that I personally enjoyed playing in my heydays, to those titles that
have intrigued me over the years for one reason or another. \"Fester's Quest\" was a little bit of both. As a long-time fan of the classic 1960's TV
show, \"The Addams Family\" upon which it is based, it was also among the
many NES RPG/adventure titles that I was very fond of, and thrilled to have both played and eventually completed.

The basic plot is simple. Uncle Fester is catching some moon rays at
the Addams home (it's his thing to do), when he notices that an alien
spaceship has set itself over the city and unleashing a colourful beam
downward. This will not do, as the spaceship is blocking his view of the
moon. So, he does what any public minded citizen will do. Armed with nothing more than his weird ray gun (at minimal power no less), he sets forth to take out this invading alien menace and restore a clear view of the moon from his balcony.

Along the way, Fester is helped by various members of the Addams family household, who provide him with both offensive and defensive support. Even the disembodied \"Thing\" lends a hand. Sorry, but admit it, you all saw that one coming !!

Although the many RPG titles of the era bore one common feature, a
propensity for \"levelling\" your character until it's life/hit points and
other statistics made you much more formidable than when you started,
Uncle Fester starts out with the equivelant of just two (2) hit points. In
other words, two hits and he's done for.And across his entire adventure, he has the opportunity to increase this by just two more hits. That's it !!

He also has a few weapons at his disposal. Not death-inducing RPGs,
bazooka cannons and flamethrowers, but a \"Weird ray gun\" which he starts out with, and more than halfway into the game, a whip. These items can be powered up along his quest, and in what is unique to all RPGs, they can also be powered down.

Additionally, he can make use of dynamite, an appropriate weapon for
this TV character, homing missiles which he finds late in the game, and
courtesy of the zombie butler \"Lurch\", he can make use of a noose which can effectively destroy all the enemies on the adventure screen...except for bosses. However, although he has unlimited use of his ray gun and whip, the other items are only available in limited quantites, and once they are depleted, Fester must journey back to the Addams family member who gave it to him, and that is easier said than done.

Fester must take one several progressively harder alien mini-bosses
and obtain pieces to the map of the alien spaceship, where he ultimately
must do battle with the alien boss itself. Poor Fester is not your average
RPG character. He does not get to wear special armour or battle gear. His
only defense, in fact, are the invisibility and health potions that he has
at his disposal, some vice grips to free him from the slowing-poison that
the alien invaders can infect him with, and his own wits. Well, he CAN light up a light bulb with his mouth, and maybe impress his friends, but that won't help save the city from
the invading alien forces, unfortunately.

But perhaps the most challenging aspect of this RPG is that unlike the
vast majority of RPGs from this era, there is no \"save point\" in the game.
So if Uncle Fester loses his last hit point, back to the very beginning of
the game he goes. So you had better get it right the first time !!

Below is a recap of Rodrigo's innaugural fastest completion world
record based on significant moments in the game.

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THE PATH TO VICTORY

04:49 - enters 1st mansion and finds the hidden extra life unit
06:58 - enters 2nd mansion
07:22 - defeats 1st alien mini-boss
09:39 - gets whip from Morticia Addams
12:14 - enters 3rd mansion
12:39 - defeats 2nd alien mini-boss
13:11 - gets missiles from \"Thing\"
13:49 - enters 4th mansion
14:15 - defeats 3rd alien mini-boss
15:42 - enters 5th mansion
16:33 - defeats 4th alien mini-boss
19:45 - enters 6th mansion
20:33 - defeats 5th alien mini-boss
21:24 - enters alien spaceship

I'd like to digress for a moment, if I may. This time is simply
incredible. I used to spend a good 5-7 minutes, sometimes more, staying in the initial area powering up my ray gun to full power before entering the
sewers. This should serve as a gauge for how fast Rodrigo's time is.

26:16 - after spending nearly five minutes carefully maneuvering through
the complex maze that is the alien spaceship, Uncle Fester finally
confronts the boss alien menace that ruined his moonray bath.

Nope...Fester is not going to hum a certain 5 notes from \"CE3K\", or
politely ask the invading alien to leave, or help it phone home. After all,
he's waded through the cities sewers for the better part of his adventure,
and for that, someone's going to pay !!

26:58 - the alien boss proves to be Fester's greatest foe this game, forcing
him to use up every defensive item at his disposal, and then when the going gets tough, Fester unleashes a barrage of missiles which delivers the final blow to the alien creature.

The next scene is from the balcony where Fester started his quest...
you can clearly see the alien ship blow up. The city is saved.

Fester, Gomez, and the entire Addams family, except \"Thing\" which I
could not quite see, are shown in the center of a crowd of citizens cheering
them on for saving their fair city, as a respectable rendition of \"The
Addams Family\" theme song plays in the background, eventually showing the closing credits and \"1989 Sunsoft\". Fester can once again enjoy his
moonbath !!


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AFTERTHOUGHTS

I always liked this RPG title. It was simple in terms of scope. There
was a minimal amount of equipment to find and learn how to use, and except for your weapons, you did not have to invest an inordinate amount of time \"levelling up\" your character's statistics. That, plus you had the chance to play as a character from \"The Addams Family\" !!

Over the years, several games based on the show were created, and
this was I think one of the best. My second favourite is for the SNES in
which you play as \"Gomez\" and take on the evil judge from the first big
screen movie based on the TV show.

Well, I am glad that Rodrigo took me up on the challenge of seeing how fast he could complete this title. I know Rodrigo...he was not about to
submit a slow completion time like 3 hours just to claim a prize, he wanted
to submit a completion time that both he and his fellow \"Metroid Team\"
members would be proud of.

So, congratulations, Rodrigo, on a job well done !!

Robert