E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

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.

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
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.