Home Alone (video game)
Encyclopedia
Home Alone refers to a number of video games created for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
, Sega Master System
, Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear
, Amiga
, personal computer
, Nintendo Entertainment System
and the Game Boy
. They are all based on the movie of the same name.
Gameplay=
There are multiple versions of the game and each features a different style of gameplay, but all share the same plot and roughly the same objective: Kevin McCallister is left home alone when his family goes on vacation. He must prevent Harry and Marv, the "Wet Bandits", from burglarizing his home, using various household objects as traps and/or weapons. Each version of the game is an example of the trap-em-up genre, which also includes games like Heiankyo Alien
, Space Panic
, and Lode Runner
.
Marv and Harry arrive separately at the two entrances to the house. If the player touches either of Bandits, he is caught and the game immediately ends in defeat. Hurting a Bandit ten times will permanently incapacitate him. The ultimate objective is to incapacitate both burglars.
The player can trigger his own traps, resulting in no harmful effects, but the trap will instantly disappear. If the player has too few remaining traps to sufficiently hurt each Bandit, the game will continue, but victory will be impossible. Following a game, the player may enter his name into a high score list. The player's position on the list is determined by whether the game was a win or a loss; by the time taken to defeat the Bandits; and by the total damage the player inflicted.
" screens; one having Kevin McCallister performing his trademark screaming face with a speech balloon
on his left side that reads "Oh no!", the other one only having a large cloud with "Oh no!" in the middle of it.
) and he will be unable to reenter the house again. If all the houses end up flooded, the game is over.
Kevin starts with a simple BB gun, but he may also finds different items he can combine to make various makeshift weapons that have different effects depending on the ammunition (glue, snow, light bulbs, sound waves, coals, etc.) and gun type (rifle: flies the farthest and fastest; bazooka: flies slower and at a shorter distance; launcher: fires the weapon in a small, short arc; mortar: fires the weapon in a high, but short arc.) Each gun has a specific amount of ammunition, but collecting other ammo items after the completion of certain guns will refill the ammo supply. If he wishes, the player may disassemble any of Kevin's weapons (aside from the BB gun) into its component pieces, so that other ammunition types may be utilized. Should Kevin enter a house before the Bandits, he can lay down several traps throughout the house (keeping with the game’s movie tie-in theme) to help increase the Pain Meter and make protecting the house easier. If any of the Bandits end up capturing Kevin, he will he strung up on a wall while they continue robbing the house, but he can fidget and drop from the wall to continue defending the house.
The game starts with one difficulty level, but a harder one can be unlocked. In the hard difficulty, Kevin must wait for 40 minutes for the police to arrive and the bandits’ van will drive faster from house to house, but he will be able to create newer and more powerful guns to fight them off.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
, Sega Master System
Sega Master System
The is a third-generation video game console that was manufactured and released by Sega in 1985 in Japan , 1986 in North America and 1987 in Europe....
, Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear
Sega Game Gear
The was Sega's first handheld game console. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the TurboExpress....
, Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
and the Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
. They are all based on the movie of the same name.
Gameplay=
There are multiple versions of the game and each features a different style of gameplay, but all share the same plot and roughly the same objective: Kevin McCallister is left home alone when his family goes on vacation. He must prevent Harry and Marv, the "Wet Bandits", from burglarizing his home, using various household objects as traps and/or weapons. Each version of the game is an example of the trap-em-up genre, which also includes games like Heiankyo Alien
Heiankyo Alien
is a video game created by the University of Tokyo's Theoretical Science Group in 1979. The game was originally developed and released as a personal computer game in 1979, and was then published by Denki Onkyō Corporation as an arcade game in January 1980...
, Space Panic
Space Panic
Space Panic is a 1980 arcade game designed by Universal, which Chris Crawford calls the first ever platform game, as it pre-dates Nintendo's Donkey Kong which is often cited as the original platform game. Space Panic lacks Donkey Kongs jump mechanic, disqualifying it as a platformer for some...
, and Lode Runner
Lode Runner
Lode Runner is a 1983 platform game, first published by Brøderbund. It is one of the first games to include a level editor, a feature that allows players to create their own levels for the game. This feature bolstered the game's popularity, as magazines such as Computer Gaming World held contests...
.
SNES version
In the SNES version, the goal is to evade the Wet Bandits while bringing all the McCallister's fortunes from the house down to the safe room in the basement. Once all items have been sent down the chute to the basement, Kevin must make it past rats, bats, and ghosts he encounters in the basement, then fight the spider king so he can make it to the safe room to lock away all his families riches.Personal computer version
In the Home Alone game for the PC, the player is given from 8:00 to 9:00 (approximately 5 minutes of real time) to set up traps in order to hurt the Wet Bandits once they arrive. No further setting of traps is possible after this period. Each trap can only be triggered once and they all inflict the same amount of damage.Marv and Harry arrive separately at the two entrances to the house. If the player touches either of Bandits, he is caught and the game immediately ends in defeat. Hurting a Bandit ten times will permanently incapacitate him. The ultimate objective is to incapacitate both burglars.
The player can trigger his own traps, resulting in no harmful effects, but the trap will instantly disappear. If the player has too few remaining traps to sufficiently hurt each Bandit, the game will continue, but victory will be impossible. Following a game, the player may enter his name into a high score list. The player's position on the list is determined by whether the game was a win or a loss; by the time taken to defeat the Bandits; and by the total damage the player inflicted.
NES version
In the Home Alone title for the NES, the player must avoid being caught by the Wet Bandits for 20 minutes. During this time, he can set various traps using items around the house, each with a different corresponding strength and allowing the Bandit tripping them to be knocked unconscious longer. Kevin can also hide behind certain parts of the house, but only for two consecutive turns; any other concurrent passings will result in a game over. Some official copies of the NES version have two different "game overGame over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...
" screens; one having Kevin McCallister performing his trademark screaming face with a speech balloon
Speech balloon
Speech balloons are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comic strips and cartoons to allow words to be understood as representing the speech or thoughts of a given character in the comic...
on his left side that reads "Oh no!", the other one only having a large cloud with "Oh no!" in the middle of it.
Sega Genesis and Sega Game Gear versions
The Home Alone Genesis and Game Gear titles feature a slightly different plot. While the games still revolve around Kevin’s battle with the Wet Bandits, he instead must protect several houses in his neighborhood while waiting 20 minutes for the police to arrive (40 on higher difficulties). During the game, the Wet Bandits drive around the neighborhood in their nondescript van until they decide to enter one of the houses. Kevin can travel by sled (in top-down view) to the various houses and do battle with the Bandits as they proceed to rob whatever house they are in (in a 2D platformer/side-scroller format). When this happens, Kevin must fight them off with different weapons and guns in order to fill up an empty Pain Meter; when he does so, he will have saved that particular house and cause the Bandits to retreat. During this time, however, another meter will be filled as the Bandits proceed to rob the house, and if Kevin is unsuccessful in stopping them (thereby allowing meter to be filled), the house will become “flooded” (Marv leaves the water in robbed houses running as a calling cardCalling card (crime)
A calling card is a particular object sometimes left behind by a criminal at a scene of a crime, often as a way of taunting police or obliquely claiming responsibility. The name is derived from the cards that people used to show they had been to visit someone's house when the resident was absent...
) and he will be unable to reenter the house again. If all the houses end up flooded, the game is over.
Kevin starts with a simple BB gun, but he may also finds different items he can combine to make various makeshift weapons that have different effects depending on the ammunition (glue, snow, light bulbs, sound waves, coals, etc.) and gun type (rifle: flies the farthest and fastest; bazooka: flies slower and at a shorter distance; launcher: fires the weapon in a small, short arc; mortar: fires the weapon in a high, but short arc.) Each gun has a specific amount of ammunition, but collecting other ammo items after the completion of certain guns will refill the ammo supply. If he wishes, the player may disassemble any of Kevin's weapons (aside from the BB gun) into its component pieces, so that other ammunition types may be utilized. Should Kevin enter a house before the Bandits, he can lay down several traps throughout the house (keeping with the game’s movie tie-in theme) to help increase the Pain Meter and make protecting the house easier. If any of the Bandits end up capturing Kevin, he will he strung up on a wall while they continue robbing the house, but he can fidget and drop from the wall to continue defending the house.
The game starts with one difficulty level, but a harder one can be unlocked. In the hard difficulty, Kevin must wait for 40 minutes for the police to arrive and the bandits’ van will drive faster from house to house, but he will be able to create newer and more powerful guns to fight them off.