#27: Home Alone

Nice tilted e in the logo!

Ah, Home Alone. A movie tie-in platformer for the highest grossing movie of it's year, and third most all-time at the time. Even now Wikipedia lists is as #38 all-time in North America adjusted for inflation. With such a popular movie it's no surprise someone made a video game based on it... Movie tie in games tend to be terrible, though. How does this one fare?

Who hides a bag of cash in the toilet?

The premise of the game is The Wet Bandits have broken into the house and are trying to steal all your valuables. You play the 8-year Kevin and are tasks with running through your house stuffing valuable stuff into your backpack. When it fills up you can empty it out in a laundry chute. Throw enough stuff down into the basement and you have to go down there to lock it up in a gigantic safe. As you play you collect different weapons and can set off various traps on the bandits.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

The platforming section actually isn't bad. Your movements are a little slippery and you can violate the laws of physics by adjusting your trajectory in mid air. But it feels good. Maybe this is because this was one of the first games we had on the SNES and I played it a lot as a kid, but it just feels like the way a platformer should feel.

Uh-oh.

The theme of the game is a little silly. Why does an 8-year old care if some thieves are going to take his toy trains? How does a squirt gun actually slow them down at all? I get that the movie was all about traps and fending off the bandits and I guess it fits in decently with that. And is it really so different than collecting coins or stars or whatever it is Mario is making you randomly collect? I guess not.

The level design gets boring. At least Mario would go underwater once in a while. In this game every level features several rooms full of stuff, 2 hallways, and a basement. You collect different valuable things but you always stuff them down a hole and then dodge bugs in the basement.

The music and sound are actually pretty good. The movie got nominated for an Oscar based on the music so I guess they had a good base to work off of. I'm surprised they didn't screw it up.

The game actually uses three buttons. Jump, attack, switch weapons. Hurray!

Overall the game is a little repetitive and is a movie tie-in but it was fun back in the day and wasn't bad even now. I feel like I'm supposed to hate this game but I just can't. It's a fun little platformer.

Rating: B+