Michael Myers is known decently well in the horror department, and the movie he stars in, Halloween, actually deserved the media attention. But, was the game as good as the movie? Let's find out.

As for the graphics, they aren't bad for Atari standards. There's multiple objects on screen, and the two floors are represented adequately. In fact, there's a light-flickering effect that occurs in some of the rooms, too! The animation also looks somewhat lifelike, though the objects that aren't people don't look especially good.

As for the sound, it's mostly just your character's footsteps, until...Michael Myers appears out of thin air! When this happens, the game starts playing the Halloween theme, and it sounds pretty good for an Atari game. This is ruined by one simple flaw - Michael Myers, for some reason, will appear in EVERY SINGLE ROOM that you visit besides the safe rooms on each side of the house. And the theme plays every time he shows up! It stops being scary or suspenseful when you know he's going to appear on every screen, and the theme starts getting just a LITTLE annoying after you hear it about a hundred times.

The gameplay is simple - assuming the role of a babysitter, you must rescue children from the insane killer Michael Myers by taking them to one of the two sets of safe rooms at the ends of the house. And, of course, you also have to avoid Myers, mainly due to the fact that, well, he's an insane killer with a knife, what do you expect? If he does touch you, then...huh? The babysitter is decapitated, but she just runs offscreen. Is this supposed to be comical or horrific? It's hard to tell from where I'm standing.

While the house may be small, there sure are a lot of kids in it - in fact, as long as you can survive, there are an infinite number of kids to rescue. Also, it'd seem as though those are some unhappy children, because there's no furniture or anything in any of the rooms, except for a knife that you can find. Great idea to leave THAT out when you have kids in the house! And, of course, you have to take these kids to the safe rooms, so that Myers doesn't get them. Unfortunately, the game starts to falter in that regard - for some reason, the kid will sometimes decide not to advance with you when you move to the next screen, even if you're dragging the kid with you by holding the fire button. How hard is it to program such a mechanic?

We've already discussed what Myers does to the babysitter when he attacks her, but what about when he attacks the kids? It will happen eventually, unless he kills you and takes your three lives before he can get that chance. Once he starts getting faster, he becomes much harder to avoid, and if there's a child on the screen, he'll go after the kid instead of the babysitter. If he catches them...augh! He proceeds to brutally kill them, splattering gore all over. I know this is a game based on a horror movie, but how did THIS get past the controversy filter?

Avoiding Myers is more difficult than it normally should be. For one thing, there's two rooms on each screen, so you have less floor space to work with in dodging around him. Even worse is the fact that, because of the way the children are positioned, the bottom part of the floor is blocked from your walking space, further limiting you.

For the most part, the babysitter has no defense against Myers, which leaves you to run away from him. But, you can find a weapon, in the form of the knife, which you'll sometimes find lying around on the ground. If you pick it up, you can utilize it to stab Myers and send him running. But, it's difficult to do so, because the knife has very little range and only stabs out for a second, and you lose it if you get a successful hit. But it does earn you points, so it's a good idea to try to hit him with it if you find a knife.

By the way, the point system. Basically, you get 675 points for saving a child, 325 points for stabbing Myers, and you lose absolutely NO points from allowing a child to be killed. How does this make sense? Shouldn't you be penalized for letting the kids die? You don't lose points, you don't lose a life, you don't even get a mocking tune or anything. If you didn't have the point system, there wouldn't be any reward for saving the children, and no penalty for killing them...

Since this IS an Atari 2600 game, the game gets noticeably more difficult as it goes on. At first, Myers walks like he has a limp, and you can outrun him easily. But, as your score increases, he becomes much faster, to the point where it's difficult to escape from a room because he moves too fast. And, of course, barely being able to escape from rooms is a handicap that is very difficult to overcome when you're trying to save children as well. I'd really like to see somebody stab Myers when he's at maximum speed...it'd be pretty entertaining, I have to admit.

In conclusion, Halloween is actually a pretty good game for the Atari 2600, and it's a faithful-enough adaption from the movie, as well. But, it could've been more than it was. The controls were sometimes problematic, and maybe Myers could only appear at certain times, instead of every room? It would've been better that way...

Final Rating - B+(It's worth your time for a play, but it isn't too amazing. If it had just those few improvements, it could be great)

So, this is NovemberJoy, fading out. See you next ti-what? Who's this guy at my doorstep? I'll go check, I'll be back in a second...

*sounds of screams and horrible mutilation*

Myers - That's what you get when you don't give MY game a perfect score...

THEND

Haha nice review. I like the ending I might give this game a try, although I'm not sure if I would like it a lot. But hey, I'm always looking for something new to play