E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

The Good
In today’s information age, there is an undeniable respect for knowledge. Facts are as plentiful to find as they are unreliable to confirm. When it comes to video games, fact-glorifying manifests itself in most popular kind of stated opinion as how important something is. Armed with all the useless information in the world, gamers have taken it upon themselves to take a stand on an unmovable opinion that would prove to be an indelible mark upon time.

For example, “Top 10” lists are a popular method of spreading game gospel and are as prevalent as they are useless in establishing any kind of sober discussion. A popular “Top 10” is “Top 10 Worst Games” of which E.T. The Extra Terrestrial winds up near the top along with Superman 64.

E.T., don’t phone home. You were just misunderstood, that’s all. The game itself has not withstood the test of time very well by the infamous context in which it will always be remembered for. Just as the State of Florida condemned convicted serial-murderer Aileen Wuornos to death even though she was clearly mentally insane, so to will the majority of video gamers condemn E.T. the game for being the worst game ever made without ever having played it.

Any time this game is mentioned the urban legend of a remote land fill in New Mexico also gets thrown in; even though this is the subject of a documentary I don’t care to see, the fact is neither here nor there when reviewing it. Also getting heavy airplay in even the most casual of game reviews is the fact Mr. Game Designer whats-his-face only had weeks to complete this game before the Christmas buying season. These facts get thrown in with the entire mythos of the videogame market crash that tested the supremacy of the nerdling class. They are facts, perhaps even all true, but spouting them as evidence just means you don’t have your own opinion on a game you never played.

Is it a good game? Is it fun? Why don’t people have their own opinions rather than quote the guy before him? As not many people know how to play “the worst game ever made” I’ll provide a lowdown:

“E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” is an adventure game where you are in control of the titular alien as he tries to collect pieces of a “phone” that he will use to “phone home” to his home planet and call in a rescue as he tries to escape Earth with the aid of his human friend, Elliot.

The game world consists of a “cube”, with each screen forming a side of the cube; as the player reaches one side of the cube, they will warp to another side of the cube. The game play has you running around this cube looking for clues to the pieces of the “phone”; this corresponds with the icon that flashes at the top of the screen whenever the player moves to a new area of the game screen. If the player finds himself standing on a “?” icon and presses the action button, E.T.’s head will raise, some of his life energy will be expended, and then a white dot may or may not flash signifying the presence of a piece of the “phone”. This piece of the phone is scattered deep in a pit, one of which are scattered symmetrically around the screen. Previously an obstacle to avoid, E.T. must now drop into the hole to retrieve this missing phone piece. Once he recovers all the pieces he may use it to contact his home world; at this point the player must race to the bottom of the cube, where in the “forest” screen he will meet the spaceship that will take him home.

However, in his way there stand the forces that will hinder E.T. in his struggle: the FBI agent and the scientist. Both chase after our little guy, and if caught will take away a piece of the “phone” or capture him, depending on the difficulty level. This quest for the phone pieces is hindered by the fact that any action or movement drains E.T. life, which can only be replenished by one Reese’s Pieces candy found on each “pit” screen. If the player runs out of energy he is resurrected by Elliot at his house, but with less energy when first starting. Upon completion of the primary task in which E.T. gets rescued and escapes Earth, the player will find himself as E.T. yet again only to repeat the same objectives all over again, but with fewer resources.

Some things should be cleared up at this point if they could, but it is more or less that vexing and nonsensical to understand; the game play could probably be described better, but you know, it still wouldn’t make much sense.

However, things should be taken into context. This is a children’s game. Children are resilient creatures who can adapt to any harsh environment. If given a game like “E.T.”, they will squeeze all the fun they can out of it like they would if you gave them a pair of socks. Playing a video game, even a bad one, is still better than doing homework. Movie licensed products were a novel concept back then for video games (this may be the first one), just as video games themselves were. It was fun to relive a fabulous children’s movie in an interactive format… for a child.

Something else should be taken into context: this is neither an action game, nor even an adventure game which it masquerades as. Instead, this is a puzzle game in which the first part of the puzzle is to figure out how to play it. While that seems completely crass I honestly mean it; at a time when the rules were still being written, and all the rules were written by Atari, there’s no reason why that statement can’t be true. Video games could be anything at this point.

As I’m writing this from memory about a game almost as old as I am, I still remember playing it way back when. My best friend Goldie Dixit (I can’t believe my best friend was called that) had the game and provided me with a 10 minute tutorial on how to play it. But as the adaptive children we were back then we squeezed all the fun to be had out of it; once the rules of this “puzzle-game” were learned, it became an action game where we tried to collect all the phone pieces as quickly as possible.

Compared to other games of the time, it doesn’t really fare badly. Graphics are not bad: objects look like the things they are meant to resemble. E.T.’s head moves up and down just like the movie. The human characters have faces, arms and legs and the entire body moves as they walk. Once again, this sounds crass but it is 1982; back then Boy George was asking “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?”, and no one did, even if he would “Tumble 4 U”. Furthermore, the game had a title screen that feature the lovable aliens face in detail as well as John Williams’ stirring score from the movie. Ah, good times.

The most frustrating part of the game by far were the controls; even if you knew how to levitate E.T. out of a pit, if you executed the controls improperly he would stall in mid-air until you retried, all the while losing valuable health. This is the second part of the puzzle: to figure out how to do everything as economically as possible before you ran out of health. Sure, this is really frustrating in a game when everything little thing you do, even from taking a step, means you are literally one step closer to death, especially when you are figuring out how to play the game and need to try out new things. This game is as frustrating as Defender or Sinistar after level one.

Ah, old school gaming, come on back. The fun we had with ye was uncompromising, unfair, but completely satisfying upon success. Old school gaming is not just fun, but hardcore fun.

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial is an old game that hasn’t aged well, but neither has many of its contemporaries. You won’t see any Atari 2600 game on Xbox Live, let alone this one (I think River Raid, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns and especially Yar’s Revenge would be exceptional additions, though). When judged alongside its peers, one could make the very appropriate conclusion that E.T. The Extra Terrestrial is not a terrible game nor even a bad game, let alone the “worst game ever made”. The fact that Atari made a terrible business decision with this game shouldn’t be burdened upon the enjoyment one can get from this unique game, if but only it is the enjoyment of a child back in 1982.

The Bad
E.T. can not run across the screen and rape an Indian woman tied to a post. Guns are not CGI-removed from FBI agents’ hands and replaced with walkie-talkies. For a guy who doesn’t wear any pants, video game graphics do not accurately depict E.T.’s massive alien phallus or his Extra-Testicle.

The Bottom Line
Lots of games deserve to be called the worst game of all time, but not this piece of nostalgia. Not everything that is old is bad. Likewise not everything that is new is the best; I am personally suspicious of recent AAA games that have received unanimous perfect scores.

A perfect 10 doesn’t compare with the fun had with an Atari 2600 in a basement with faux wood paneling back in the day before these stupid “rules” were made up; it just seems everything these days is taken for granted.

The Good
Considering that programmer Howard Scott Warshaw completed this game in about 5-6 weeks (at the time, games usually took at least 6 months), it's amazing the game was finished at all let alone as good as it is. The title screen looks quite good with the E.T. logo and drawing, and in game graphics are solid with no flickering sprites, plenty of color, and varied screens which really weren't out of line with other 1982 era 2600 games. Sound effects are ok, and include a decent rendition of the E.T. theme. With multiple skill levels and randomized locations for parts you need to find, there's some replay value.

The Bad
Adventure style games are tough to make work with just a joystick and one button; figuring the game out isn't particularly intuitive and without the instruction manual it's easy to wander about with no idea what's going on. Once you figure out how to play, the game at least makes some sense and can be completed. Unfortunately, it just doesn't hold my attention too long as I found the gameplay rather slow and unexciting. Falling down pits repeatedly is probably the most frustrating aspect, and even though it's not too hard to get out after a while it can still become tiresome. Had more time been given to the development of the game, it probably could have been made much more interesting.

The Bottom Line
This game has a reputation for being one of the worst 2600 games made, if not one of the worst for any platform. While the game isn't very good and gameplay is overall rather dull, far worse games have been made before and after this, many for the 2600; for some examples, take a look at Airlock or Skeet Shoot. Later on Active Enterprises would release 53 games that were much worse which were contained in Action 52 and Cheetahmen II. I don't think any of these and many other really bad games are as often remembered since E.T. was heavily promoted (and vastly over produced!) due to the popularity of the movie. Rumors of a significant number of copies being dumped in a landfill doesn't help it's reputation much either, which I think is usually too harsh.

The Good
Hmmm, what did I like about this game? Well, the title screen seems slightly decent with it's pixelated rendition of E.T. But still, that can't stop me saying how frustrated and disappointed I was at the time.

The Bad
Before I get onto the bad, I have to let you know how excited I felt when they were announcing a game based off that brilliant movie. After seeing that movie in theatres, it was a lifetime favourite of mine. Some time later, I hear that they released a game of E.T. and I couldn't sleep for many nights (well, I mean one but, yeah). As soon as I get the game, I'm thrilled because I believed I was gonna have a blast, but enough talk, let's talk about the flaws about this garbage!

As soon as I get past the title screen, I see E.T. landing on earth in a pint-sized spaceship. Now I believe he was stranded on Earth as the other aliens seemed to forget him, so far, the game hasn't followed the film too much here, but i'll let it slip. The game doesn't give you any instruction in what to do but you have to find all the parts of a phone in order to "phone home". Who in the right mind would just break a perfectly useful mobile phone and scatter the pieces around the area in order to make our job even harder? Now, you'd think that we've got it all sorted right, NO! The confusion has just begun! You have to wander through many different places and collect stuff while trying to withstand a time limit as well. Anyway, back to the phone, to collect a some of the parts, you have to fall into these random holes in the ground and collect the phone part. In order to get out, you have to raise E.T.'s neck to fly (remember that from the movie?). There's just so much crap in this game, I could spend all day writing about the bad. But, you know what, I won't. Onto the bottom line!

The Bottom Line
Whoever made this game better phone home, because if I find him, I'm gonna force him to play this game so that he can know how much misery he has caused me. As a kid, I thought that the game was playable for five minutes. I'm starting to wish that I put my copy of the game in the Atari landfill of September 1983. yes, it's really that bad and you don't want to play it! I may've forgotten a few minor points about the game, because I haven't played it for over 20 years.