"1 1/2 Months of Development Time... What d'you expect?"

I'm comparing this game to other games of the Atari age. So please don't go on rants about this not being fair. But who am I kidding? You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. Ahem, now, let us go back in time to the Atari age. Be whisked away to a mystical land, where boys are boys, aliens are aliens, and where this game sucks.

Graphics: 4/10

The graphics are actually not that bad for the Atari age. I could make out E.T. and the two guys who run after you. To be honest, I don't know why people bash the graphics of this game. For crying out loud, man! Look at the awesome freakin' title screen! The panicle of E.T.'s graphics! Wow!

Gameplay: 1/10

Oh boy... The gameplay... I tell you, this is where the game really drops dead. Let's start with the main problem: the wells. If you fall into a well, you may find something good, like parts to E.T.'s telephone, so he can go home and you can stop playing this game. But if you want to get out of the wells, you have to fly up and try to fly around correctly so you do fall in the well again. Good luck, my friend. Nine times out of ten, I made a slight error when getting out of the wells, and fell right back into the well, costing me time I could've been doing something else. Apart from that, there's no penalty for dieing. None. At all. I guess the developers didn't want you to agonize to long playing the game. Anyway, if you run out of steps, Elliot comes and revives you, and you can phone home another infinite number of times. If one of the two guys catches you, you get taken to a building that looks like the Parthenon in Greece. You also collect Peanut Butter Candies. Reece Peanut Butter Candies! Yay for product placement!

Sound: 2/10

The sound is extremely mediocre, even for the Atari. A cornucopia of blips, blops, blaps, bleeps ad bloops. Nothing more. Now, I know that most Atari games have these sound effects, so I'm going to have to come clean. I gave the sound 2 out of 10 so it would balance out the overall score. So there you go, guys, I admitted it.

Controls: 3/10

There's nothing much to say about the controls. They are relatively responsive, but are hard to get working at times.

Overall: 4 + 1 + 2 + 3 = 2/10

This game has been blamed for a major part in the early video game crash of 1980 something. The game's development team had only a month and a half to make the game, but, could it have been better if they had more time? It just might have been, but they didn't, so it sucks. I guess we will never know. Never, ever, please, oh, please, NEVER!

In closing, if you want to check out the game that may or may not have caused the collapse of video gaming in the 1980s (and my, who wouldn't!?), give this game a shot. You just may find your opinions different then mine. If you do, have fun playing “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial” on your Atari 2600. You may or may not be disappointed. Who am I to say? Just don't say I didn't warn you.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/07