E.T. Is it really the worst game ever?

[Cobra Commander]

Is it?
Seriously, what the worst game ever made?

[megasdkirby]

No.

There are games that are much, MUCH worse.

ET just requires practice. Once there is all to know on how to play the game, it's actually quite fun.

I personally like ET, to be honest.

[Sonicwolf]

This has been beaten to death.

I think that it is not the worst game ever but it isnt good either. I think the big problem is that ET for the 2600 is exampled primarily as a bad game due to the hype surrounding it and the movie it was based off of. If it had been a regular game that was not based off of one of the biggest films of the late 20th century, it sure would not have been as universally derided and hated as it has been. It is definately not as bad as, let's say, Big Rigs for the PC. That game cant even be considered a finished product. Semi-interactive abortion.

[megasdkirby]

Rocky and Bullwinkle for the NES. Now THAT is bad.

[DenDenDos]

No. Logically it cannot be the worst game ever.
The reason for this is because Water World for the Virtual Boy exists.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

1) It was buried in the desert, therefore it must be bad.

This is most likely an urban myth. Besides, it is mainly a sign of overproduction. If you created millions of extra God of War games, and had to dispose of a lot of them, it does not mean the game is bad.

2) People returned the game, therefore it must be bad.

There's a large learning curve that some people could not overcome. You have to read the manual to figure out how the symbols work.

3) The FBI guy makes the game bad.

I agree, but variation 3 takes the FBI guy away.

4) Falling into pits is annoying, therefore it is a bad game.

Pitfall?

5) There's not that many screens.

A lot of Atari games have one screen.

6) The game was rushed through development.

You have a point there.

[PingvinBlueJeans]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzdqaJIeE0Q

[ryborg]

cliched topic, done to death, etc

both of these are true:


ET just requires practice. Once there is all to know on how to play the game, it's actually quite fun.


It is definately not as bad as, let's say, Big Rigs for the PC.

[kupomogli]

Didn't this topic just come up last month?

Anyways. ET isn't good, but it's far from the worst game ever made.

I think everyone who plays it bases the game on the damn hole. You fall in the hole you get stuck the majority of the time. Other than that the game can be beaten quickly.

[Ze_ro]

Cheetahmen II is worse than E.T.

--Zero

[jb143]

Interview with it's creator (http://www.digitpress.com/library/interviews/interview_howard_scott_warshaw.html)...lots of good stuff in there.

[grolt]

Sorry, but that title goes to another alien acronym.

ALF (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox8aKg4XElc&feature=related)

[Arkhan]

Well for one, saying an Atari 2600 game is the worst game ever is a bit unfair. It's one of the earliest consoles, with some primitive hardware!

E.T. was simple. It didn't offer much as far as replayability. Though it was fun, interesting, completely playable, and used the hardware pretty well. It had a pretty well thought out gameplay style..... follow radar, find the phone pieces, build it, etc. Pretty good stuff!

It just didn't live up to being an E.T. product. If it wasn't ET, but played the same, it would've been hailed as a classic probably. I mean it's not like other games (Keystone Kapers, Blueprint, etc), offered much more depth.

Or Yars Revenge.

There are WAY worse games. Like cheetahmen 2, as mentioned.

ET and Pacman for Atari just failed to live up to their hype. If Pac Man were just "DotEater Guy", by some knockoff company, it wouldn't be hated on so much probably.

[DigitalSpace]

It's one of the absolute worst, but not the worst. However, it damaged the gaming industry more than any other bad game out there.

Also, while it's never been confirmed that unsold E.T. carts were included in the dumping, the Atari burial really did happen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial).

[sidnotcrazy]

Its not bad at all. You could finish the game, and it actually had an ending. Its honestly one of my favorites, and I have a signed copy from HSW to prove it.

[MissingNo_1231]

I'm not a big fan of the game, but I still play it a little every time my Atari is hooked up.

It seems to me like Superman64 is worse, though I haven't played it either, and Custer's Revenge, I mean, WTF?

Oh, and Plumbers Don't Wear Ties looks like absolute crap too.

But, the only one of these I've played is ET.

[Mianrtcv]

Dragon's Lair NES rates higher on my list.

[nensondubois]

Since Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing exist, you will recognize it as the worst game ever created.

[Robocop2]

You're Winner!

[Swamperon]

E.T. is in no way the worst game. Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde for the NES is extremely terrible, apart from making little to no sense, it looks awful and controls terribly.

Bart's Nightmare for the Snes could also probably be a strong contender for this title as well.

[lookfun78]

One game worse than this is final fantasy 11. Try going to gamestop the day after it comes out and hearing that 50 of them were traded in at just one location.

[chrisbid]

E.T. is not the worst game of all time, but it is probably the biggest first party bust of all time

[Pantechnicon]

I for one have good memories of the game. Certainly not the best thing I’ve ever played, but by no means the worst.

I never beat E.T., but back in the day I did make considerable progress owing to the assistance of longtime friend of mine who is Native American. At one point while playing I looked over at him and commented he was pretty good at this. He responded with a totally straight face, “It’s because I’m an Indian. We’re pretty good at following symbols we find in the forest.”

As already alluded to, the whole “buried in the desert” part of the story lends a certain (and not entirely accurate) surrealism to the legend of E.T., but only speaks indirectly, at best, about the overall quality of the game. Apart from the too-short development period, I’d go so far as to say Howard Scott Warshaw should be commended for trying to do something really different with the VCS than replicate contemporary gameplay mechanics, slap a license on it, and call it a day, e.g. – Pac-Man-cum-Alien (http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=23674)*. Thus I think it’s hardly fair that the game is stigmatized as it is, especially when the flack comes from people too young and spoiled by modern games to appreciate things like the Atari in its proper historical and technical contexts . No, E.T. is not a perfect game, but it was clearly an early and noteworthy attempt to try and push the envelope.

* - Ironically, when Warshaw was trying to explain to Steven Spielberg himself how the game was going to be an effort to more or less recreate the narrative experience of the E.T. movie, Spielberg’s response was, “Couldn’t you make it more like Pac-Man?”

[Richter Belmount]

Id like to consider shin megami tensei devil survivor to be the worst game ever

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzdqaJIeE0Q

This.

Joe had a stack of games twice as big that we had to whittle down to make a "top 10" for this video.

[ScottK]

To me E.T. isn't the worst game, but it would be in my top 10 list of worst games. Taboo Sixth Sense for the NES is a horrible game if you can even consider it one. Another game I truly hated with a passion was Drakkhen for the SNES. Also to top off the list would probably be Action 52 since it probably has the worst 52 games ever in one cart.

[bacteria]

Zaxxon on the Intellivision. That sucked hard.

[jb143]

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii12/jeremy_burk/pEanuTs.jpg

[shopkins]

Only if your Atari controller is broken and up doesn't work, like ours was when I was a kid. That adds a whole new layer of suck that pushes a game about falling into pits over the edge.

Taboo is not a game. For the interactive fortune-telling product that it actually purports to be, it's not that bad. When I was a kid the video store where I rented games actually put a strong disclaimer on Taboo saying it was only to be rented by adults because of its "occult" content.

[old_skoolin_jim]

E.T. is in no way the worst game. Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde for the NES is extremely terrible, apart from making little to no sense, it looks awful and controls terribly.

I agree with this, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Alf (why does buying the storybook RESET THE GAME?! It makes NO sense!).


Bart's Nightmare for the Snes could also probably be a strong contender for this title as well.

While being virtually impossible to beat (I did manage a C+ one time), I still enjoy some parts of the game, same goes for Virtual Bart...

[Kitsune Sniper]

Bart's Nightmare and Virtual Bart have some good mini-games, but the rest of 'em just plain suck. A password system would've helped it quite a bit.

[jaekwon15]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzdqaJIeE0Q

well said.

as a kid i could beat E.T. so when i grew up to find out that it was the worst game ever made i didnt know why. and that video pretty much says what i think about the game. the game wasn't that hard. (or that bad.)

[The 1 2 P]

Speaking as someone who was a kid that was um....forced to play ET due to a lack of quality games back then, I will definitely say that ET is one of the worst games of all time and perhaps of the entire Atari 2600 era. It's like a bad demo that never should have been released.

[Arkhan]

One game worse than this is final fantasy 11. Try going to gamestop the day after it comes out and hearing that 50 of them were traded in at just one location.

you mean ff12?

FF11 was an MMO. Launched oN PC first, :D

[Zap!]

Sorry, but that title goes to another alien acronym.

ALF (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox8aKg4XElc&feature=related)

ALF was amazing for the SMS in my opinion.

[kaedesdisciple]

I would rather play 2600 E.T. than PS1 Perfect Weapon. Now THERE is a bad game, friends.

[megasdkirby]

Speaking as someone who was a kid that was um....forced to play ET due to a lack of quality games back then, I will definitely say that ET is one of the worse games of all time and perhaps of the entire Atari 2600 era. It's like a bad demo that never should have been released.

This reminds me of both ET and Superman when I was small. I was forced to play each one (individually at separate times), and I hated them both at first. As I continued playing them, I realized what to do, and it became bearable. I realized that the problem with these games were not about their gameplay, but about how obscure it was to understand it at first.

While playing Superman, and without manual, all I did was run around in circles, watching screens pass by, until I realized what had to be done. Then I liked the game. Same with ET: once I found out what to do and how to react to each peril/obstacle, the game got really good.

I'm not saying that they are excellent games, because they are not. But there are alot more games that deserve the title of "shitfest" or "crappiest game" than ET. Many Color Dream games fall in this category. Rocky and Bullwinkle for NES is by far the worst NES game I've ever played, and possible ever created.

[8bitgamer]

Air Lock for the Atari 2600 is far worse than E.T.

[Steve W]

Air Lock for the Atari 2600 is far worse than E.T.

I'm ashamed to admit this, but I always liked Airlock. Sure, it only took a couple minutes to play, but still, I got some enjoyment out of it. I think one reason why some of these bad games are still well liked is because back in the day, you couldn't talk your parents into buying something else if the game they just got you sucked. So you'd play it and eke out what little fun there was in it. If a game you got for Christmas or your birthday wasn't good, you made do with it until you could get another. Which is why a lot of us don't absolutely hate the Atari port of Pac-Man.

[Zap!]

Isn't Sssnake for the 2600 the worst game ever? I can't picture it, haven't played it in over 10 years. However, I do remember it being absurdly awful.

[The 1 2 P]

Now that I think about it, The Empire Strikes Back for the 2600 was pretty bad too, although on a completely different level of being bad than ET. It was the epitomy of repetitive gameplay, which I suppose was just another of the pitfalls of developing games for the 2600 back then.

[jb143]

Isn't Sssnake for the 2600 the worst game ever? I can't picture it, haven't played it in over 10 years. However, I do remember it being absurdly awful.

It's featured in that youtube video that's been mentioned a couple of times in this thread.

[lagartija_nick]

I remember playing ET quite a bit at my friends house back in the day.

Wasn't this game created in a span of 3 weeks total or is this just a legend?

It wasn't that bad really. My friend and I never had any trouble playing it and beat it quite a few times. Never found it confusing at all.

I was always impressed when games had actual endings back in the day. The only other games that come to mind in that area are Adventure and Haunted House.

Its easy to look back and say it was horrible but to me it was a lot more technically impressive than most 2600 games of that era.

I guess people had too many expectations because it was an ET game.

[8bitgamer]

Now that I think about it, The Empire Strikes Back for the 2600 was pretty bad too, although on a completely different level of being bad than ET. It was the epitomy of repetitive gameplay, which I suppose was just another of the pitfalls of developing games for the 2600 back then.

I really liked Empire.

[tom]

I think the film was worse than the game

[darkslime]

I'm not a big fan of the game, but I still play it a little every time my Atari is hooked up.

It seems to me like Superman64 is worse, though I haven't played it either, and Custer's Revenge, I mean, WTF?

Oh, and Plumbers Don't Wear Ties looks like absolute crap too.

But, the only one of these I've played is ET.

Oh, basing your opinions off the AVGN is even worse.

[Famidrive-16]

as someone who owned rocky and bullwinkle as a kid, i can safely say it's worse than ET. i couldn't even beat the damn game with a Game Genie.

ET's still horrid but I'd play an hour of that over a minute of R&B.

[MissingNo_1231]

Oh, basing your opinions off the AVGN is even worse.

I don't watch that guy's stuff, but I do agree with you.

Those games could be great for all I know, and I plan on finding out for myself some day.

[ReTrO-pLaYeR]

Although I've never played it, it is not considered to truly be the worst game ever. A rare unlicensed multicart called "Action52" is considered to be the worst of any out there. It offered "52 Action Packed Games" when many of these games were unplayable or didn't work at all! An even rarer followup to one of the games in this cartridge, "CheetahMen II" was developed but never saw light in the marketplace. The quality of this game is just as bad, and only a glitch will allow you to see the final levels.

[ReTrO-pLaYeR]

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii12/jeremy_burk/pEanuTs.jpg

LOL! You're funny.

[The 1 2 P]

I really liked Empire.

It was better than ET but not by much.

[slapdash]

TESB bad? Blasphemy.

And anyone who thinks ET, or even Ssssnake, was the worst 2600 game hasn't taken the time to play things like the Mythicon games or Scuba Diver/Skin Diver/Sea Hunt.

[rkotm]

For what its worth (and shameless plugging) ive reviewed the game a few years back as a certain game reviewer thats impersonating people who impersonate the certain reviewer. Confusing? I would safely say so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IO27AFGYpA

[JSoup]

Personally, I liked E.T. I can see why people thought it was horrible (and if I had bought it new at the time, I probably would have been angry as well), however.

[rbudrick]

Until I started surfing the web in 97, I had no idea it was considered so bad. It's better than 90% of 2600 games, imo. Most 2600 games suck. Luckily, there's so many, that there's a shit ton of winners in there too.

I always liked ET. It was like a lazy-man's Sword Quest, or a bastard sequel to Adventure or Indiana Jones or Superman. It had an ENDING, for Chrissakes! There's not a lot of VCS games that were that forward thinking.

This game gets a bad rap for the annoying pits, and that's it. The desert story doesn't help, but it really means nothing to those who know the facts.

Sit down, play the game, and beat it. You'll be glad you did.

-Rob