Home Alone (2006)

Home Alone
"Hey guys, let's license Home Alone years after it was popular and make a video game about it!" Said someone from Blast! He probably got a promotion for it instead of being fired like he should have.
Genre(s): Puzzle Platform(s): PlayStation 2 Release: November 29, 2006 Developer(s): Coyote Developments Publisher(s): Blast! Entertainment Country: United Kingdom Series: Home Alone Predecessor: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

".. But this game, by all known laws of physics in the universe, has no right to exist! The mere idea would baffle the greatest scientific minds of our time!"

— The Angry Video Game Nerd

Home Alone is a 2006 game released for the PlayStation 2 that is loosely based on the film of the same name. The game was developed by Coyote Developments and published by Blast! Entertainment only in Europe.

Gameplay

The aim of the game is to go through five areas and dispose of the burglars while locking all the doors and windows to stop more getting in. The player is able to collect and use tools to close the entrances and traps to catch the burglars. Unless the player locks all the entrances on the level, however, defeating a burglar simply means another takes his place.

Why It Should be Buried into the Snow

1. Complete lack of faith to the source material. There are completely made-up characters to play as besides Kevin, you lock the burglars inside the house and kill them with various projectiles instead of catching them in traps, you just fight repeated clones of Harry, differing only in the color of the sweatshirt; there is a two-player mode (even though it's Home Alone) etc. Also, the game's season is spring, not winter according to the original source material.
2. This game is basically a 'blast from the past', like the movie it was based on was released in 1990, which is 16 years before the game. In other words, it was too late to release a licensed game based on the movie, causing the game to sell poorly due to the lack of interest in the movie at the time.
3. False advertising: As the title would suggest, when we're alone at home, of course as Kevin, but we have to choose three other characters during the playthrough.
4. The gameplay only involves locking the door, ending with defeating the opponents. And so through 10 levels.
5. The level design is too tight, so if you have no projectiles left to hit the burglars, you have a small chance to avoid getting caught by them.
6. Attacking opponents is difficult because throwing an object takes too long and can only be cast, according to the coordinate system.
7. The hand-drawn art (including the company logo that appears when starting the game) is so badly made it looks like they were done by a small child.
8. You are only given 3 lives, and if you lose them all, you have to start the entire game over from the beginning. This is supposed to be a PS2 game, aimed at kids, not an NES game.
9. Downright abysmal and amateurish graphics that are close to an Atari Jaguar level, even though this is actually a PS2 game and this wasn't done by Indie developers as well!
10. The game only saves high scores and does not save game data, so if you restart the game, you have to reset the whole playthrough of the game into the first level.
11. The length of the game is extremely short, it can be beaten in about 1 to 2 hours.
12. Generic music and sound effects that feel like they were taken off a Flash or another puzzle game from the early-mid-2000s.
13. Extremely little content for a PS2 game, as its ISO file is about 50 megabytes when extracted. This could mean that the game was printed on a CD instead of a DVD in 2006.

Reception

Home Alone was released to extremely negative reviews from critics. It sold poorly and is currently sold at high prices from certain countries such as France on eBay.

After playing the game for the first time, JonTron straight-up said that the box art was the best part about the game.

During the Angry Video Game Nerd's review of various Home Alone games, he simply rejected this game, criticizing that it didn't feel or look like the movie.

Videos

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