Macaulay Battles the Burglars

“Home Alone” is here again. This time, it’s Capstone’s “Home Alone, the Computer Game.” Incarnated this holiday season as an arcade game, the movie plot lends itself fairly well to the antics of Kevin and his criminal co-stars. The actors, including Macaulay Culkin, lend their faces to the action.

As arcade games go, its relatively unsophisticated. As arcade games made from movie titles go, however, this one gives more than a passing wave to the film. The game starts by giving Kevin time to prepare for the arrival of the bungling burglars.

In Phase I of the game, he has an hour to search the house for materials to buildbooby-traps. Phase II has Kevin running through the house trying to avoid his own booby-traps while making sure the burglars get caught in them.

Phase I is as easy as it sounds. Character movement is uncomplicated and the game makes it very easy to collect and place the booby-traps. Phase II however, clearly demonstrates to moviegoers the phrase: “Don’t try this at home.” The burglars just seem a whole lot smarter in this game than they did in the movie.

The game is charming and should be easily understood by any youngster who can operate a computer keyboard.

It’s not likely to hold the attention of an experienced Nintendo player or, for that matter, anyone older than 12.

But it’s a nice introduction for beginning game players of any age who don’t want to hunt for treasure or conquer the world.

Home Alone

Rating: **

IBM and compatibles, Tandy; 640K RAM; EGA or VGA graphics. List: $39.95

Computer games are rated on a five-star system, from one star for poor to five for excellent.