Home Alone (1992)

Let's go back in time to 1990. John Hughes, one of the most beloved filmmakers of the 80s with his line of "Brat Pack" and "National Lampoon's Vacation" films made a pivot to become a "family friendly" filmmaker. Instead of sullen teenagers lost in a world run by adults or Chevy Chase strapping Grandma to the top of his station wagon on the latest Griswold excursion, we got the rise of Macaulay Culkin, a cute 8 year old who was one of the biggest celebrities at the time, alongside MC Hammer and Bo Jackson.

Home Alone came out as a family comedy, but with the hottest child actor attached and its blend of Christmas cheer and off the wall slapstick, it went on to become the hottest movie of 1990. With that success it branched out into other media mediums, including video games.

Home Alone was one of the earliest Super Nintendo titles released for the brand new 16 bit behemoth. Developed by THQ (a different THQ than the one who does game design now) and released around Christmas 1991, the game attempts to take the house of an upper middle class family in Suburban Chicago and turn it into a video game world. There's a reason why certain movies, like ET , aren't meant to be video games.

As Kevin McCallister, the precocious 8 year old protagonist played by Culkin in the movie, you must stop the Wet Bandits (the robbers in the movie, who have recruited more members for this game) from robbing your house of goods. The purpose of the game is to go through your house, room to room, to uncover items like jewelry, toys, electronics or pets, and deposit them into the laundry chute. You must do this while avoiding the Wet Bandits as well as not triggering the traps that you set up to stop the criminals. You can also find weapons like baseballs and BB guns to help you, or if all else fails, you will have your unlimited super soaker to use. If you take damage, you can find pizza in places like the toilet.

After a while of doing this, you will deposit enough things that you will get a key to go to the basement. After avoiding creatures like rats, snakes and birds, you fight a "boss" before you lock up the safe. You do this four times. You will be done with the game in 20 minutes.

Way too easy, way too boring, and likely given by parents to way too many children, like myself, due to the popularity of this relatively stupid movie.

On the plus side, the cut scenes between levels were pretty impressive by 1991 standards (not enough to buy the game for it, but one of the only positives.)