E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

The Good
Seriously, E.T. was actually not as bad as many people say. It was just not nearly good enough to be treated as a serious video game platform. It isn't much fun and doesn't deserve the license of the fantastic movie its based upon.

E.T. is a game where you control E.T. throughout several landscapes looking for pieces of his telephone, so that he can call home. I'm sure someone on Earth has managed to do this although rumor has it that if you actually managed to beat the game it would simply freeze (or worse).

The most impressive thing about the game was that the programmer managed to pull it off in less than two months. That probably doesn't make you want to go out and buy this old relic.

The Bad
At the time the graphics were truly state of the art and you could actually discern the shapes of buildings, trees, humans, and E.T. himself. However as of 2006, my cheap cell phone uses more advanced graphics.

E.T. was quite difficult. Most adults and children found it impossible and unrewarding. My cousin discovered how to lift E.T. out of the pits when he fell in and showed me how to do this and after that it was fun for another forty minutes ("fun" might be stretching it).

The really bad thing about this game was that it just wasn't a great platform game and could not live up to the hype Atari promised. It really should not have been given the license for the movie. It wasn't the programmer's fault as I understand he was forced to develop the title in less than two months.

The Bottom Line
Amusing piece of video game history. Worth checking out just to see what people are talking about. I definitely would not pay for it. Its probably a collectors item simply based on its mythic stigma.

The Good
The title screen and the title music.

The Bad
Everything else, and the most frustrating thing about it is when I fall into a hole or when I get caught by someone, it takes FOREVER to get out because I stay in the hole no matter how hard I try! It also, of course, caused the video game crash of 1983 because of how bad the game was!

The Bottom Line
Don't get this game!

The Good
This game was great because, as an 11 year old boy, I was able to win. I played this game after having just seen E.T. What I liked was the way I was able to get a feel for the pattern of the world. I knew which way to leave each screen, where each direction would take me. I was good at escaping the villain who kept coming and trying to get me. Most of all, I like the way I was able to learn what to do, by trial and error. The graphics weren't great, but consider the era and the game machine and my age. I was satisfied.

The Bad
What I came to not like about the game is that it was simple enough that a child could learn it. The qualities that endeared it to me as a younger boy made it boring and simple later. Had there been a higher level version, with a more complex world, it might have held my attention longer. But I was able to grow, while the program stayed where it was. I moved on to more complex systems and games.

The Bottom Line
An excellent kid's game, perfect to introduce a child to gaming and to self-mastery of the gaming environment. Not a great game for complexity-desiring adults.