Another movie game. Turn off brain. Check. Set expectations low. Check. Let grey matter ooze out of ear.
Mlllaaaaargggggghhhh…
It’s funny because you figure with all the failures in the dawn of gaming, they would stop making this sort of shit. But that’s the rub: they’re failures in terms of anything remotely related to a gaming quality metric, but, somehow, they still sell. Video games (and other media and pop culture to a similar extent) are somewhat unique in that respect: they sell almost entirely based upon their marketing appeal. The game itself is separate from the marketing.
The experience of playing Home Alone is based pretty much entirely on the nostalgia of the film. That’s it. The developers make a point of trying to tie it in to the good-guys-bad-guys silliness of the movie, which was amusing as a kid, granted, but fails here when your worst enemies are in fact bats and rats, and the kind developers somehow decided that when there are bats or rats, you CAN’T USE YOUR SLINGSHOT CAUSE THAT MAKES SENSE!
The game is full of the usual poorly designed, half-assed side scroller theme. There are a thousand games like this, and the only thing that sets this one apart is the “collect the valuables” aspect, where instead of mindlessly moving sideways, you have to think enough to go back and forth to the drop spot. Once you’ve amassed enough valuables, you have to get past the nigh interminable array of bats and rats to seal the valuables in the vault. I don’t remember any bats and rats in the movie, and with this number, the house would be condemned!
Verdict: Home Alone is exactly what you expect: A poorly thought out movie-based game with awkward controls, frustrating gameplay, dismal music, terrible graphics, and laugh-out-loud design choices. If you really want to be nostalgic about the movie, watch it with silly subtitles or commentaries and heckle it. You’ll have more fun.
EVERY GAME... EVER 