Home Alone for PC: The Best Christmas Video Game

Since I was 13, I've kept a Christmas tradition: on the evening of December 24, a couple of hours before sitting down to dinner, I play a few rounds of the PC game Home Alone. It's the one where Kevin must defend his house from the "Wet Bandits" by setting traps here and there, running through every corner of his home, trying not to get caught. It's a cinematic game, with sprites taken straight from the film, that follows the movie's events step by step.

Home Alone: The Best Christmas Video Game — Im Ready

Home Alone was one of the highest-grossing films of the 1990s. There can't be a person in the world who hasn't seen or at least heard of the misadventures of the mischievous but brave little boy played by Macaulay Culkin. The story is well known: the entire McCallister family goes on vacation, leaving their home behind and forgetting one small detail—Kevin! Now the boy must survive not only his parents' absence but also the so-called "Wet Bandits," two evil (and clumsy) criminals who take advantage of empty homes during the holidays to rob and flood them.

The film, directed by Chris Columbus, had a very good sequel that included the original cast (which also has several video games), and another three quite bad ones with different actors that nobody paid much attention to. In the world of video games, there are several adaptations of the first two films. Most of those versions, if not all, are somewhat bad, with the exception—of course—of the PC adaptation developed by Capstone Software, which follows step by step the most fun part of the film: setting traps and making the bandits fall into them!

Home Alone, the PC Game

Home Alone for PC is a game divided into two stages. In the first, you have an hour of game time (about 5 minutes) to find and set all possible traps. If my memory serves me right, there are 26 different traps to place during those minutes, plus a rifle that causes damage on the first hit and then immobilizes the thieves for a few seconds. When the game clock strikes 9 PM, it's time to face the criminals face to face, portrayed by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.

The villains, if they are far from you, will walk around the house. If they are two or three rooms away, they will start heading toward your location. If they are one room away, they will walk much faster to catch you. Traps only work if you are in the same room as the bandits. If you are too far away, don't count on them having much success (although it can happen). You win when you manage to land 10 hits on each of the thieves.

In the first stage of the game, you have to keep an eye on everything that blinks, because that's a trap. Those traps can only be placed in specific spots: on the floor, behind doors, hanging from things, etc. You can only carry three traps at a time. You grab them with F1, select them with F2, and place them with F3 (in marked spots, only when the cross turns into "Here"). In this placement stage, it doesn't matter if you step on traps. When the action starts, you must watch where you step, because they will disappear if you trip them and it's a wasted opportunity. It can happen that it becomes impossible to defeat the bandits if you don't set enough traps before the time is up, or if you step on too many while running away. In that case, a "restart" is recommended.

Played straight through, Home Alone lasts no more than 10 minutes, even if you reach the end. But those 10 minutes are super faithful to the film, just enough to fulfill the premise. True, it may not be the best game in the world, but when it comes to Christmas games and movie adaptations, it's one of the most genuine.

Want to Play It Right Now?

No problem! You can try the online version at DOS Games Online, which unfortunately has no sound (the jump is mapped to the Z key and the air rifle to the X key). If you prefer to play on your PC with sound (almost absent during the game), you can download this zip and emulate it with DOSBox (just open DOSBox and drag the Home Alone executable into the emulator window). Have fun!