In 1978, a new kind of terror arrived. Halloween was the first of it's kind, as well as the first modern horror movie. A crazed serial killer causing havoc throughout a small town in Illinois. Halloween inspired other movie franchises, including Friday the 13th. The original movie was very successful, and had roughly 7 sequels before getting a reboot.

In 1983, a game for the already dying Atari 2600 was released. Developed by Wizard Video Games, 'the Shape' appeared in his first video game, titled Halloween. Let's look at  one of the first licensed horror games and the first Halloween game.

Graphics, 7: The game looks like your average Atari 2600 game. Some games have better graphics, but some games have worse. When the game starts up, you'll see a spilt-screen with two separate rooms. There can be black boxes on some of the rooms that can either be windows or doors. If there's a door on both floors, you'll go downstairs.
If there's only one door on one of the floors, you'll be transported to a new room. The floor is a separate color than the wall, only used to differentiate the floor from the walls. The walls and floors can come in various colors. You will most commonly see either orange, yellow, or green. Occasionally, you can see blue or brown. The walls and floors are different colors in every single room. It's almost as if the house has hundreds of rooms. There's also some cross-beams to separate the floors.
Everybody in this game looks like an average Atari 2600 character. The person you play as, who i'm assuming is Laurie, has to protect the child she is babysitting (or children) from Michael Myers. She is wearing a green shirt and a red dress, which makes her stand out from everyone else. The children wear a green shirt and blue pants, and they're also much smaller than anyone else. The main attraction (to me at least) is Michael Myers. He wears a gray suit with black boots (they look like boots) and a pale, plain, emotionless white mask with a slim brown line across the mask, simulating the hair. Michael is carrying a knife, which is just a thin white line, with some black on the end resembling the handle. You can also find a sword or a knife, and fight off Myers. All he does is run off though, you can't kill him.
At the top of the screen, there are three pumpkins which represent how many lives you have left. If Michael catches you or one of the children, you head disappears and you run around for a few seconds with blood gushing out from your neck. It's incredibly violent for a Atari 2600 game, and for 1983. At the bottom of the screen is your score. It's just numbers.
Well, I've said a lot about graphics, but they look good for the 2600, so graphics gets a 7.

Sound, 5:  Every noise is just a beep in this game. It was that way with most 2600 games as well, but many other games have better sound than this game as well. When you first start the game, the Halloween theme plays. It's recognizable, and sounds decent for all the beeps in it. Also, when Myers appears, the theme plays as well. Other than that, there's no music at all. When Laurie walks, beeps represent foot steps. Also, then Laurie is walking a child to the safe spot, there's a  long series of rapid beeps, which can add to tension, especially if Myers is chasing you. The sounds are just beeps. It doesn't sound bad, it just gets repetitive after a while. The theme is cool though. Sound gets a 5.

Addictiveness, 6: This game was surprisingly fun...for 10 minutes. The game is very repetitive. You goal is to save as many children as you can while fighting off Michael Myers. Makes sense, since Laurie was a babysitter. To save a child, you must be in the same room as the child, hold the button on top of the controller, and move the child to the leftmost room in the game while avoiding Myers. If you succeed, you get 675 points. That is a very odd number of points. Why not 100, or 1,000? I think they just though of a random number of points. It sounds boring, but it's actually pretty fun. It will get old after a few minutes though. Addictiveness gets a 6.

Story, 7: I assume the story is the same as the movie. The movie's story goes like this; On a cold Halloween night in 1963, six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister, Judith. He was sentenced and locked away for 15 years. But on October 30, 1978, while being transferred for a court date, a 21-year-old Michael Myers steals a car and escapes Smith's Grove. He returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, where he looks for his next victims.
Laurie (who's a babysitter) was one of the survivors of Michael's rampage throughout Haddonfield. She was babysitting a boy named Tommy, and Michael was stalking her, and he eventually tried to attack, only to be fought off by the detective. In this game, you may play as Laurie trying to protect Tommy (and herself) from Michael. Story gets a 7.

Depth, 2: There's not much to offer in this game. Everything I've said about the gameplay is it. You just protect Tommy from Michael. You can try to kill Myers, but you can't. I wish I had something else to say about the depth, but there's only one game mode on this game. It would have been cool to have a multi-player mode, but it's just not there. Depth gets a 2.

Difficulty, 1: Halloween is a very easy game. It's a little too easy. Michael Myers walks very slow, similar to how he moved in the films, and he's very easy to escape from. When you leave the room Myers was just in and walk back in, he'll be gone, only to try to attack you again. Myers does appear in every single room, although he's very slow. Also, you can walk slightly up and down the room. If you're at the bottom of the room, just before Myers gets you, you can run up towards the wall, and easily run past him. I've noticed that the more points you have, it seems as if his speed increases. Getting the children into the safe room is easy as well. You jjust hold the only button on top of the controller, and if Myers appears, just leave to room, go back and continue carrying the child to the safe room. Maybe if you score enough points, Michael Myers will get faster and become more challenging. Halloween is very easy, so difficulty gets a 1.

OVERALL, 7.2: So this was Halloween. Not a terrible game, but not a great game either. It was decent for it's time, but it doesn't hold up very well. It gets old rather quickly, but is fun for about 15 minutes. You just don't do anything exciting in this game. If you want a game where you have to avoid Michael Myers (or another crazed serial killer), you're better off playing Babysitter Bloodbath (formally known as Halloween). I'm sure you can still find the original Halloween version of the game.
Until next review bye!