E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial

"Not as bad as people say..."

Strangely, this is considered to be one of the worse games ever. Based on a quite famous movie, fans would surely expect good things from this game, but apart from some interesting details, it turns out to be a bad game.

Before you start playing, you'll see a spaceship (or whatever that is...) bringing ET to this world. Then, some weird signs will start to be seen on top of the screen, and in order to succeed in this game you will have to successfully understand each of them. As you may think, that's not an easy task and everyone should believe me when I say that this game is completely unplayable without a copy of its manual, or at least a FAQ.

Pretending that you can actually understand the signs, your main target is trying to get all 3 phone pieces and phone home, in order to return ET to his native planet, which completes the game. While trying to achieve such target, you will confront several enemies, who come in two different types. They will drain your energy or steal your phone pieces, but you can also find the kid who appears in the actual movie, who will grant you some bonus.

About the energy, you will start with 9999 of it and any action you perform will drain it. When it reaches zero, you will lose one of your three lives. Strangely, the game appears to be quite easy to play and you'd be able to complete it without spending more than a single life, if it wasn't for the many bugs that you'll find.

Those problems include, but are not limited to, strange changes occurring in the scenario, pits suddenly appearing out of nowhere and enemies randomly appearing in the middle of a level, among many others.

Concerning the storyline, this game is fairly based on the movie with a similar name, despite the lack of mentions to any kind of storyline. You'll easily understand that ET is trying to get back to his planet, making him look for three phone pieces, allowing him to "phone home" with a regular phone, which will increase the cost of a call by way too much.

Concerning play time, I must say that it is possible to finish this game in less than 10 minutes, if you are a skilled player. If you are not one, well, give it 25 or 30 minutes. As for replay value, there is surely none.

When it comes to the graphics, they are neither good nor bad. Considering the console for which this game was designed, all the characters can be seen fairly well, just like all the scenario. However, all the occasional glitches and bugs will sometimes ruin its looks.

With the game featuring a nice theme and some good sound effects in its introduction sequence, people would expect good things from this game. Unfortunately, those are the only two scenes which feature good sounds in the game. Apart from them, the only sound effects you will listen to are ET 's footsteps (which strangely sound like a train), the sound he makes when he stretches his neck and a beeping sound, heard when your character is running. That's all! No music, no more sound effects, nothing! This is the kind of game I would advise you to turn the sound off as soon as possible!

You can obviously give this game a try, but you will be surely disappointed after two or three minutes.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 05/20/05, Updated 04/30/07