The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem preview (multi)

We take a closer look at the upcoming The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem game that’s coming out later this month through Outright Games. Here’s our preview, based on a recent hands-on session with a build of the game and a chat with its developers.

What we know

Due for release later this month (on the 24th) The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem is set to coincide with the release of the upcoming movie sequel to the 2019 reboot of the franchise. A 3D platforming adventure at its core, the game can be played solo or with up to three others as you control Wednesday, Pugsley, Gomez, and/or Morticia Addams across 24 story missions and 12 minigames .

Due out for all major consoles and PCs, the game’s missions are thematically divided between four areas of the mansion: the kitchen, the graveyard, the music room and the lab – each of which offers unique gameplay mechanics. The minigames can also be accessed as a standalone experience through the main menu outside of the story campaign.

The story itself will be an original one, not tied to the upcoming movie, and the narrative will be delivered through text and emotes in between levels. The iconic theme song, however, isn’t included, and is yours to hum as you work your way through a lengthy 8 to 10 hour story campaign.

What we saw

As a part of the recent Outright Games event we attended, we went hands on with The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem in two lengthy single player levels as well as one of the game’s party games. Afterwards, we also spoke to Nick Madonna, founder of developer PHL Collective, as well as Brian Gitlin, who is the lead programmer for the game.

What we thought

Developer PHL Collective did a great job recreating the look and feel of the recent animated movies, and revealed that they’ve been working closely with MGM on the game in a close partnership. This allowed the developers to use references and assets from the film in their game, even though they were crafting their own standalone story for it.

While the game can be played solo, it feels developed with multiplayer in mind. This is true for the story driven campaign where you play together on a shared screen but is especially true for the minigames that are very different from the regular platforming. The minigame we played was a obstacle-filled runner, and the developer’s claiming that all 12 minigames will be vastly different, so there’s definite party game potential here too.

Each one of the characters has their own unique abilities as well, which makes it fun to mix things up during the campaign as well. Different sections of the house are designed to better suit certain characters, so it helps to collaborate and make use of things like Morticia’s web sling or Pugsley’s bombs.

The developers also promise incentives to replay and explore levels with crests and coins to collect, and are adding some macabre/dark humor to this otherwise family-friendly game to make sure they get that Addams Family vibe that many of today’s parents grew up with. We’ll know how it turned out in just a few weeks!