Its Halloween, and its time to do a review.. of Halloween, for Atari. Going this far back, I wasn't expecting much, but I must admit, I was pretty surprised with this game. It is basedo off the horror movie, and this has probably some of the best Atari age music I've heard.  Your goal is to rescue kids that are in a house that Micheal Meyers, the masked psycho, is also in. You must avoid Meyers while guiding the kids to the door. Your lives are represented by jack o' lanterns, which is a nice touch considering thats the movie poster. You do get a chance to defend yourself though, so grab that carving knife, and sink it deep into this review.


Graphics: 8
Honestly, its not too bad. You can clearly see you are playing a female protagonist, and you wander the rooms of a house. Each room is two tone, the floor and walls being different colors.  Being early age of gaming, you see windows but no furniture or anything like that, pretty typical. The house appears to have two stories, or a basement, as there is a bottom level that you can access by going through doors. You will find small children waiting helplessly at the bottom of a screen, if you hold the fire button you can walk them with you to the exit. You get points, and then the house resets.

When Micheal Meyers appears, the famous theme song plays, and he is dressed in his grey jumpsuit, just like the movie. Meyers  chases after you until you exit the screen. Because the actual map is small, expect to see him a lot. One effect I really enjoyed was in some rooms, the lights flicker randomly. Its a nice, spooky touch.

There is a fair amount of violence in this game, one that even GTA do not do, but we'll get to that in a minute.  You find a stick-looking object on the ground -which is a knife to defend yourself. Its range is horrible, but its the only offensive move you get. If you cannot sneak past Meyers and he catches you, your character will run about with their head cut off, the stump squirting blood. It actually looks a little bit funny, nowadays. But the worst part, the kids you are supposed to rescue can be caught and are also murdered! Their small bodies lying on the ground, bleeding. This kind of violence crosses boundaries and I am highly against it, but the atari age was a bit lawless, its crude graphics serving to break barriers of all types. I won't knock the game down for this, it was a reflection of the times and the film, but its presence is very surprising. The NES would also endanger children, Friday the 13th comes to mind, with the children's lives being your grisly timer - but their deaths were always offscreen.


Sound: 10
The classic Halloween theme is recreated here, and plays anytime Meyers shows up to harrass you. Its rendition is very well done, and its actually the best music piece I've heard on the atari systems.The basic sound effects are the small chirps and blips you would expect, but that chilling melody of our monster - is executed beautifully.


Addictiveness: 5
There isn't a lot to this game, so the thrills wear thin quickly. Even if I was playing this in Atari days, I don't think I would have kept playing this for very long. The lack of other hazards or scares is a big factor.


Depth: 3
Where I think this game stumbles is  relies entirely on Meyers for action. And while this may be true to the movie, this won't work in video games if you just have him showing up every other room only to be left behind and forgotten. If you leave the screen, he does not pursue. He usually waits until you're almost halfway across a room then appears from doors or side entrances. If there were perhaps, I don't know, a hole in the floor you could fall in, or had to navigate around an indoor pool or a large couch - it would have added a lot to this.

The knife weapon you get is nearly useless. The timing on it, and its tiny reach make it a weapon of last resort. In the five times I tried to use it, I only succeed twice. It takes practice, but I often just tried to do without it. It does not stop psycho Meyers for long, he just runs away.


Diffculty: 7
The game speeds Meyers up and adds more layouts. As mentioned in depth, I wished it had included some furniture to navigate around, or provided threats other than Meyers.


Overall: 7.0
What I find really funny, is this old 70's video game, with is blocky graphics, I felt did a better job with the source material than many liscened games that followed (LJN, I'm looking hard in your direction), like X-men for NES, Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde. Meyers and his classic theme are represented strong here, the questionable violence element aside, this game gave small chills for a earlier time.

endings : Nice job endings, this was a well timed review, and very good at that! Yeah, not to thrilled to heard about all the blood and whatnot, but oh well, won't be playing that anytime soon! As far as the true to the movie, I get what you mean. Many games often stray trying to make a better game, but at the price of the movie tie in. Transformers I feel is one of those series. Where is the Age of Extinction or Dark of the Moon game? I was actually surprised going from the game to the movie!