#93: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Sequel ho!

The original Home Alone game got a pretty decent rating from me (B+) but a lot of that was probably nostalgia. This game feels pretty similar, and the controls may even be a bit tighter, but I don't understand what I'm supposed to be doing or why I should be doing it. Maybe it's because I haven't seen the movie? I guess I don't understand why the movie got a sequel and I really don't understand why the game got one. Ok, looking at the box office numbers Home Alone was actually #5 all-time when it came out behind only ET and the 3 Star Wars movies. Adjusted for inflation it's still #38 all-time which is crazy! Thankfully Independence Day is #37 so my world still makes some amount of sense.

This sucks.

The game feels a lot like the first one where you have to run around, jump and dodge different animated objects and people, and collect things. The original game made some amount of sense, though. There are robbers so you're trying to store valuables in the vault. The people trying to kill you are breaking into your house so it makes sense that they're after you. Why is the french maid of a hotel standing on a bed throwing pillows at me? What kind of vacuum cleaner is big enough to eat a 5 foot tall boy?

Hey lady, do you have any pizza?

I also didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. There was only really one way to go, so I went that way, but I don't know what my goal was supposed to be. Am I trying to find my hotel room? If so, why do I keep getting off on the wrong floor? Why did it animate the elevator going up 10 floors when I first got on? It took longer to watch the elevator than to run past all of the obstacles on the ground floor! And I didn't find a single collectable that seemed relevant.

I don't know... Maybe this game made sense back in the day if I'd been one of the few people to watch the Home Alone sequel. But I wasn't, and this isn't back in the day, and I got game overed 4 times before the end of the first level. So for me this game sucks.

Rating: D-