The Addams Family (Pinball FX Table Review)

The Addams Family
Pinball FX Debuting Pin
First Released March, 1992
Zen Build Released February 16, 2023
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: Pinball FX
Coin-Op Designed by Pat Lawlor
Conversion by Zoltan ’Pazo’ Pataki
Stand Alone Release ($9.99)
Links: Internet Pinball Database Listing – Strategy Guide – Pinball FX Wiki
Read the in-depth review at The Pinball Chick

This was supposed to be in the 130+ table Pinball FX Table Review Guide, but since it can’t handle posting a review that large, I decided to split up all the table reviews into separate posts. The guide originally included brand new short form reviews for a few tables we already posted full reviews for. So hell, why not just post it anyway? Though I swear on all that is holy this is the last time I’m doing an Addams Family table. Unless they include the gold version eventually.

This is it. This is pinball’s all-time sales champion. The only modern pin that sold over 20,000 units. And, yea, it absolutely deserves that status. While I’ll insist until the day I die that whatever happened to be the best pin of 1992 was probably fated to be the biggest seller ever, it’s also not a cosmic fluke that Addams was the chosen one. It’s probably the greatest example of theme integration in the medium’s history. It just feels exactly like how the lyrics of the Addams Family theme song describe them. Creepy? Check. Kooky? Check. Mysterious? Check. Spooky? Actually, yea. Check-check. Every table with a darker, macabre theme that came after Addams tried to recreate the magic and couldn’t. Tales from the Crypt. Scared Stiff (which is ironically a better version of the Tales from the Crypt theme, only with Elvira instead of the Crypt Keeper). I think the modes play a big part in that. I wish Zen Studios would try to make a pin that replicated the Pat Lawlor 90s style of “doors” as featured in this and Twilight Zone. Checking off the doors isn’t a grind at all, but staying alive might be. Addams is one of the rare pins that can get away with a plethora of house balls and keep people coming back for more. Even that feels true to the spirit of the theme, and it never fails to generate laughs in my house when it happens. Do you realize how SPECTACULAR of a table you have to be to get away with that? Addams is practically in a class of its own. By the way, this is THE greatest table of the 1990s for duels. We’re always down to throw hands at Addams in the Vice House. It’s a guaranteed good time.

Signature Element – T-H-I-N-G Lock: This is one of those things.. literally, in this shot’s case.. where the charm of a real table is lost. When you play a physical version of Addams Family, having a disembodied hand come out of a box and grab the ball is a sight to behold. I can’t imagine what this must have looked like in an arcade in 1992, when interactive toys in pinball were a genuine rarity. It must have been quite the treat. But, thirty-two years later, it’s just an extended break in the action, is it not? Pinball FX has tables where full fledged zombies walk around on the table, and I’m supposed to still get excited to see this slow-ass hand come out of the box? Granted, sometimes the break is a welcome one, since this is one of the more chaotic pins out there. But, if you’re in the middle of a hot streak, it might totally screw up your shooting rhythm, especially if the lock is already occupied and Thing is just going to put the ball right back. So agonizing.

Zen has done a pretty good job with Addams. Hell, the Thing Flips auto-shot is even somewhat improved from the launch version, though it’s still pretty inaccurate. Oddly enough, it’s a pretty good shot exclusively on Nintendo Switch, but that version has major issues regarding the electric chair. In real life, when the ball is dropped from the electric chair and you take a dead flip, it’s very rare for the ball to roll up the right outlane and activate the (temporary) electric chair switch. It does it almost every time on Nintendo Switch. That’s a big problem because it allows you to cheese the doors. That alone almost cost it from winning our Certificate of Excellence, as it barely made it over the scoring average threshold. Also, and this is slightly nit-picky but the extra ball shot feels a little inaccurate regardless of which version (or mode) you’re playing with Addams. The biggest difference between the real life and Zen versions all comes down to physics. Pinball FX’s engine is poor at things like bounces. On a real table, if you brick the Thing Flips shot, you might be able to convert the rebound and make the shot anyway. The ball just doesn’t ricochet enough to do that on Pinball FX. So, in all fairness, I can’t say this is a life-like take on Addams. It’s probably 85% there, but it’s also probably accurate to say the problems with Pinball FX’s engine affect Addams more than any other Williams pin. Maybe someday they’ll find the other fifteen percent, but we all prefer Zen’s build to standard Pinball Arcade port anyway. Addams Family is an imperfect port of what might be the perfect 90s pin.
Cathy: MASTERPIECE (5 out of 5) GREAT on Switch (4 out of 5)
Angela: MASTERPIECE (GREAT on Switch)
Oscar: GREAT (GOOD on Switch)
Jordi: MASTERPIECE
Dash: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Sasha: MASTERPIECE (GREAT on Switch)
Dave: GREAT (Nintendo Switch)
Elias: GOOD (Nintendo Switch)
Primary Scoring Average: 4.5 📜CERTIFIED EXCELLENT📜
Switch Scoring Average: 3.66 📜CERTIFIED EXCELLENT📜