Home Alone.

We all loved Macauley Caulkin as Kevin McCallister in the Home Alone films right? The Master System gives you the chance to take on those bad guys yourself in this film based title, so lets live out those childhood dreams right now. Only it’s not quite the same, in the game you have to run around the house avoiding the baddies and your crazy dog which knocks you over. You can collect items to help defend yourself but it’s not the same as seeing the thieves hit in the middle of the face with an iron on a string or a toolbox full of tools. Still it’s a fun little game to play for a short while, jumping, running and discovering hidey holes and secret passages, and it’s all against the clock too so if you don’t hurry up the bad guys get away with all your stuff.

Collecting ammo allows you to fire off some shots at the bungling burglars and earn a potion to stop time for a while to give you a chance. The problem is you do it once, then again, and then again. It gets repetitive really quickly and the fun is gone. Visually Home Alone has a lot of good stuff, from the digitised stills at the title screen and cartoony cut scenes in the game which are very appealing in an 8 bit way to the way the characters are drawn and the colourful rooms to explore, it’s all very nice. The in-game music is also pretty cheery and fits in with the games theme. Sound effects are up to the same high standards too making it a high quality affair for the senses. Home Alone then, a good idea treated well visually and sonically, but let down by unimaginative and tedious gameplay.