Home Alone is an Action game developed by Bethesda Softworks LLC and published by Capstone Software in 1991 for the Nintendo NES.

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Overall 6    Graphics 6    Sound 6.6    Addictive 7.2    Story 5.2    Depth 5.4    Difficulty 8.4


Home Alone Rocks!   kramer4077
It seems this game has a bad rep on this website.  Well, I'm here to tell you this game is very cool and incredibly addicting!  I feel in love with this game when I was in elementary school.  Know why?  Because there was no need to save your progress.  At a time when there was no way to save progress in most video games, this game was so refreshing because it was always over in 20 minutes...or less...:)  When you began the game you always knew what time you'd be done playing.  Mario Bros and TMN Turtles were other awesome games, but could take hours to complete without any saving option.Yeah, the graphics aren't the best, but really are pretty decent compared to other NES games.  The sounds of the traps going off are like music to my ears :)  The music is catchy and will be stuck in your head long after you turn the game off.  There really is no story, I'm guessing that if you play the game you have seen the movie so you know the basic storyline.  You are Kevin the kid and you are running away from the robbers.  The depth of the game is decent because there are lots of ways to win/lose.  Granted the ending isn't that great if you can last the 20 minutes.  But this game can be a difficult thrill at times, especially when both robbers are chasing you and you only have 1 trap; you are frantically trying to get to the nearest trap to grab it and set it down quick!!  Will you get there before the robber grabs you?!!  That is the thrill of the game and anyone who is bashing this game must not have understood how to play it and how fun it is to strategize so that if you lose you can do better the next time you try.  I highly recommend this game for anyone who likes a heart-racing adventure...that will of course be over in 20 minutes...or less :)
  Graphics 8   Sound 10   Addictive 10   Story 7   Depth 8   Difficulty 9
      Review Rating: 4.7/5     Submitted: 04-14-13     Review Replies: 6


Good Times   RoseiRainbow
Okay, so, this game was addicting to play when we were all little kids. I used to watch my older brothers play all of the time. I love the movies and now we have the game! My favorite part of the experience was when my brother would always climb the little rope and try to get away but would end up being cornered.  The best part of all though, is, this game has a story to it. It may seem a bit funny because of the graphics but it is actually a good game. So I've heard-- I've never made it passed the first level. Today could be the day though, right?
  Graphics 6   Sound 8   Addictive 10   Story 9   Depth 7   Difficulty 8
      Review Rating: 4.2/5     Submitted: 11-03-12     Review Replies: 0


Disappointment   pi0x
Alright so this week's game of the week was awarded to Home Alone for the NES. This game was apparently made way back when Bethesda didn't know very much about making console games, because it's not... all that.. Great... if you know what I mean :P. If you don't know what I mean then I'm saying that the game is pretty much terrible. This game is very loosely based on the movie Home Alone, although if you've seen the movie you of course know what the story of this game is, but if you haven't seen the movie, good luck trying to find out the story while playing the game. It gives you absolutely no background story as to what's going on, so I guess I'll fill it in for you. Two thieves break into a house while the kid is the only one there, and the kid pretty much tortures them. Great movie, by the way. Although I can't come close to saying that about the game. Sorry Bethesda, but this game really came to disappoint. Nothing in the game is actually "broken", but at first I had no idea what the heck* I was doing until I Googled how to play it. The gameplay is quite simple, you run around, pick up these little squares, which are supposed to be the 'booby traps' for the thieves, and when one of the guys gets to close you drop one of the 'traps' behind you to make to guy fall so you can get away. Another big issue for this game is that there aren't any levels... you just run around the same house for 20 minutes(real time) trying not to get caught by these guys. Although, like pretty much every single NES game out there, this game is pretty hard. It will give you a pretty good challenge, but at the cost of playing a bad game :P.
  Graphics 4   Sound 3   Addictive 3   Story 1   Depth 2   Difficulty 8
      Review Rating: 3.5/5     Submitted: 12-24-11     Review Replies: 0


Just watch the movie.........   rcarter2
Ohhh, Home Alone. How we laughed when we saw 2 grown men getting mutilated by the traps of a little kid. You were a descent movie, but a crappy game. If you have seen the move that was made close to 20 years ago, you know the basic gist of this game. Remembering the ingenious traps that young Kevin sets up in his house to defend himself from two bandits would make you think that doing the same thing in a game would be entertaining. I'm going to be honest with you. Home Alone for the NES falls VERY short. Graphics: 4 The NES isn't known for super amazing graphics. But when this game came out, we were at LEAST accustomed to shadows and a background that at least looks like it is on a different plane than the game sprites. But I guess they must have been working with a $10 budget for the background. Your character, Kevin, and the two enemies, Marv and Harry, don't look all that bad. But the house has absolutely no depth and looks like it was drawn by an 8 year old. And even though the characters look fine, their movements are ridiculous. Kevin walking looks like he is either pretending to be a train engine or he is an extra in West Side Story. And if you thought the traps will work remotely like the movie, you are out of luck. You pick up little squares that have crappy pictures, and you place them anywhere you want. Them getting hit is just them falling on the squares for a few seconds. I guess at least they throw in some stars. Sound: 2 Why does the sound department get such a bad rating? There is no sound effects! You heard me. No sound effects at all. You would assume that you would at least get some sort of "boom" or "bang" when the bandits hit a trap. But no. The only thing you are going to hear throughout this whole game is the annoying music that the developers have so 'kindly' provided for you. Not really. There are no levels, so you are stuck listening to the same music over and over and over and over............. Addictiveness: 3 Honestly, there is very little addicting aspect to this game. Let me break this down for you. As I said, there are no levels. This game has one objective. Don't get caught for 20 minutes. And I'm not talking about 20 minutes in video game time where time goes super fast. You have to last for 20 minutes of doing nothing but avoiding getting caught. You get traps that you can grab and set down to slow down the two bandits. You get caught once, it is game over. There are no lives, so if you get caught with 5 seconds left to survive, too bad, so sad. There is one thing that can make this game slightly addicting. Get a group of friends together and make a competition to see who can last the longest without getting caught. Trust me, I doubt anyone will be lasting the whole 20 minutes soon. Story: 2 If you knew the story of this game, then the rating would probably be higher. This game follows the main point of the trap portion of the movie, but there is a problem. The game doesn't give you ANYTHING that tells a story, even when you let the title screen go for a while. The only way you will really know what the heck is going on in this game, you have to have seen the movie or at least know what the point of the movie is. Otherwise, all you can come up with on your own is that you are a little blond boy being chased around by two pedophiles.  Depth: 2 By reading everything prior to this, you expected this rating. There is very little to do in this game. You just run around for 20 minutes eluding the two bandits. To slow them down, you just grab little squares that are supposed to be traps and place them down so the bandits walk on them, making them fall down for about 3-5 seconds. That is it. If the traps had some animation, or the point was to damage the bandits enough to put them out for good, that would be better. But no. You have to do the same thing over and over for 20 minutes strait. You get caught, you get a Christmas looking screen with the words "Oh no!". You last the whole 20 minutes, and........not to spoil the ending, but it is not really any better than the screen you get when you lose. Difficulty: 8 There is one good aspect of this game, it is that it will give you a good challenge. This game is very hard to last for 20 minutes. For me, challenging is almost always good. It isn't challenging due to glitching or bad controls. It is just challenging the farther you get through, because your traps start running low. The thing is, the difficulty of this game also makes seeing such a crappy ending less worth it. Overall: 3.5 If you haven't played this game yet, you are not missing out. If there is any reason I could give you to play this game, it would be so you can try to beat it without save states so you can have the bragging rights of being able to do so. Otherwise, you can leave it, or play it once just to see its low quality graphics and no sound effects accompanied by repetitive music. You won't have any story, and you have little to do, but it will certainly give you one hell of a challenge. Just one very repetitive playing challenge. But I still suggest that you just watch the movie instead.
  Graphics 4   Sound 2   Addictive 3   Story 2   Depth 2   Difficulty 8
      Review Rating: 3.3/5     Submitted: 10-22-11     Review Replies: 3

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