Hi folks!
Here we are again with another entry, the fourth, of the [Game of the Week] column and this time the game featured is E.T. the Extraterrestrial for Atari 2600!
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Atari
Platforms: Atari 2600
Genre: Adventure
Release Date: December 1982
Not so many games in history received such a good coverage like E.T. There are books, reviews and sometimes movies on Pac-Man, on Tetris, on Super Mario, in a number that goes even beyond the intrinsic value of the game and that transform a game into a social phenomenon. E.T. the Extraterrestrial in one of such games and it’s probably in the top-5 list of games that received more attentions in the last 30 years.
We all know the sotry behind it, how it caused (or not) the 1983 crash, what was behind the game, behind its development and what its worldwide failure caused to the video games market, so if you want to know something more in a shamelessly act of self-promotion, you can read something here and here.
E.T. caused such a shock in the gaimnng world that for decades seemed that nobody wanted even to mention it, nor, of course, release a game about it. Every successful movie during the years has been converted to a video game and most of times A LOT of games were released, all based on a single movie. But with E.T. was different: after the original release on Atari 2600, a sort of european conversion named E.T. Go Home a.k.a. UFI und sein gefährlicher Einsatz a.k.a. Alien Returns and two versions for Atari 8-bit (E.T. Phone Home!) and TI-99/4A nobody has tackled Spielberg’s alien anymore. Only in the third millennium, almost like the second was still “cursed”, a new game for GBC was released, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (2001), but this and the follwing games were almost unpromoted, as the curse of the original game were still there ready to strike again.
We’re now in 2019 and more than 35 years have passed since the original release of the game so we can play it overlooking the poor quality and without incur in the “curse” of E.T.
Do you own this game? Have you ever played it? Tell me more in the comments section, let’s discuss!
Considering the short development time for an ambitious idea, it’s not the worst game of all. It’s not even the worst game on the Atari 2600. Its crime is being boring. Still, the history around it is significant, and any Atari 2600 collector probably has one or several copies.
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I totally agree. It’s a bad game for sure but giving the conditions in which it was developed and all the hype surrounding it, it could have been even worse (for example I think Reactor is as bad as E.T. at least)
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I actually do have this game! Well, it’s my husband’s game from when he was a child. I played it and had no idea what the hell I was doing, but I mean… it wasn’t the WORST game I’ve ever played! I feel sorry for the guy that created it- he was rushed and pressured to get the game released so quickly, which really wasn’t fair.
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