I'll just stay home After the success of Home Alone, of course, there was a sequel, which was called
Home Alone 2 - Lost in New York. While the first Home Alone game wasn't especially well-liked, would this one fare any better? The movie had a bit more action, and there was a good conversion on the Sega Genesis, so it was logical that this one shouldn't be much different. Well...
To start with, not only are the graphics ugly, the animations are choppy as well. Kevin looks suspiciously like he isn't wearing a shirt, most of the objects that are animated have only two frames, and Kevin himself has very little animation compared to what is expected. When you use a weapon, he doesn't shoot it, or throw it, or anything, it just either appears in his hands and shoots a projectile, or flies outward, without any animation to either of these actions. Pretty lazy if you ask me. Also of note is what happens when somebody catches you, but that's a matter that will be saved for later.
The audio isn't any better than the graphics or animation. The soundtrack is annoying, and the sound effects are just obnoxious - it makes you want to mute the game. The first level probably has the worst music track in the game, which really turns a lot of people off from the game. It's also the longest level in the game, which means you'll be listening to it for a while...
Now, as for the gameplay...it fares no better. What, did you expect a game with lazy graphics and animation and annoying sound to be good? Alright, review over...nah, I wouldn't do that to you, you know that.
One of the biggest problems is the hit detection. The game has trouble detecting obvious hits, and is also quick to jump the gun on some objects. As in, you can basically stand so that you're touching the head of a person, and you won't take damage, but if you get within about half a foot of the deadly mops, you'll take damage...
What about the controls? Well...there isn't much in the way of control. Kevin jumps with A, uses weapons with B, and changes weapons with Select. Also, if you press down while running, he does his signature slide(which I remember from the first movie), which is the only way to defeat some enemies.
There is precious little in the ways of items, too. There's pizza slices, that award an extra life when you collect six of them, whole pizzas that give a full life, cookies that restore a heart after collecting five of them, candycanes and cologne that confer temporary invincibility, and bells that allow Kevin to jump twice as high. Of course, even all of these probably won't be especially helpful, especially because most of the later enemies are completely immune to the weapons and the Kevin slide, and most of the items are never found in levels after the second one.
Of course, there's no shortage of levels - there's four of them, and there's absolutely no bonus areas to speak of! What a deal! I really feel sorry for anyone who actually bought this game in cartridge form. Not only are there all the problems previously mentioned, they can't even give us more than four levels? Most of the versions of this game have more levels than that, or at least they have more to the levels! Due to the fact that the Game Boy has more limitations, and THQ sucks at programming, there's parts of the game cut out to save space.
The storyline is pretty basic - and it isn't even close to the movie! By this game's version of the storyline, Kevin goes through a hellish hotel where literally everything in the hotel is out to murder him,(including the hotel employees!) and then, after escaping, he gets caught by Harry and Marv. A woman just happens to walk by, and he proceeds to...I'm not even going to describe it. Marv gets punched in the face, and Kevin escapes. Then, after crossing the park and the zoo, he...enters a cave? When did that ever happen? Anyways, he meets the pigeon lady, goes up a ladder, and enters a building. Obviously, it's a collapsing building, given how much debris is falling, but, of course, there's no time limit, since THQ can't be bothered to make something that might garner some kind of interest. Then, after escaping the building, he TELEPOR'S onto the roof of the building, and Marv is right behind him. After running for a bit, he proceeds to...climb up a tree, where the pigeon lady drops bags of seed onto the main villains, and then it abruptly cuts to Kevin being reunited with his family. Does THAT sound anything like the movie to you? Geez, I know you'd have to take some liberties, but seriously, THQ just decided to do whatever with this movie license, it seems.
Of course, the difficulty isn't really high, especially because there's only four levels, half of them are very short and pathetically easy, and there are extra lives in abundance. Of course, there's no continues either, and there's occasional problems with the level design and such that drastically up the difficulty. For example, in the collapsing building, THQ expects you to jump into a pit that looks no different than any other pit in the level in a level where all of the pits kill you instantly. It's not like there's any hints or anything, so a normal person would never do such a thing, especially if they had gotten that far into the game. If somebody found that and it wasn't by freak accident, then I'd say that either they're insane or they've played too much DKC.
In conclusion, this game falls below the already pathetic standards of THQ movie games, and it's probably one of their worst works. It's way too short, way too easy, and everything about it just looks and feels horribly lazy and unfinished. It seems like it should've been a crime to sell a game that is so short for the normal price of a Game Boy game...
Final Rating - F- (How did they get a Seal of Quality on such an lazy and underpolished game?)
Graphics
3 Sound
2 Addictive
1 Depth
1 Difficulty
5
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