Trying to understand the hate

[MASTERWEEDO]

Im 90% sure that most E.T, hate comes from people that didnt have a manual.

[celerystalker]

Yeah, the internet parroting has always been a pet peeve of mine. People get so jaded and think that they know everything. Even here, how often do you see people post that there's nothing left to say about classic games that hasn't been said, yet on dozens of the GOTD posts, I see replies along the lines of, "Oh, I've never seen that" or "I always heard that that game sucked, but it looks interesting." People watch a few videos, read a Wikipedia article, and assume that all facts are present. Nothing replaces experience.

I still just don't get what people ripping ET want from it other than to jump on the bandwagon. I mean, even with modern tech, what kind of game makes for a good ET game? Telltale adventure, maybe? In the early '80s, I didn't want ET. I was only ok with the movie anyway, but I just couldn't imagine what I'd be doing in the game... so I played Pitfall, Warlords, Maze Craze, and Air Sea Battle a lot.

I guess what I'm saying is that if these folks, especially the YouTube crowd, want to rag on the game, where is the obvious way it could have been better?

Edmond-I want to like Hydlide, but its sluggish pace has always been what holds me back. I keep thinking that one day, I'm gonna be in a really patient mood and "get it," but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe I should spend a little more time with Super Hydlide on Genesis. I've had it for decades, but it's one I've never given a proper go due to not enjoying the NES game much. Maybe playing that one might open my mind to the NES game better.

[Aussie2B]

I don't think most of these people parroting "worst game ever" even consider how E.T. could've been better. A lot of them are younger gamers who are of the mindset that ALL Atari 2600 games are bad and that E.T. is supposedly the worst of the worst. They see all pre-NES gaming as some sort of "dark ages", when games were bad and gamers didn't know any better until they wised up and the industry died because of all of Atari's bad games, and then Nintendo came along and saved it. That's the general narrative that they've swallowed and endlessly regurgitate. Though, now it's starting to shift such that younger gamers are also beginning to see everything before 16-bit gaming as totally unplayable, at least without Nintendo re-releasing it in a dumbed down form (just imagine the whining there would be if the NES Classic didn't include save states).

[Emperor Megas]

I was one of those freaks who thought E.T. was an alright game. Here's the REAL shocker though. You ready for this? I actually REALLY liked Raider's of the Lost Ark!

Now, I've never ended the game, and honestly never really understood the cryptic game play. I don't think I ever had a manual, but I loved the trial and error and incredibly cryptic experience. It was always SO mysterious to me, and seemed so much deeper than anything else I'd played at the time. The game play was so varied, and I actually felt as though I was accomplishing things the farther along I got.

[bb_hood]

I think its fair to consider E.T. a bad game without hating on it too hard. Personally I consider E.T. a bad game because I think its just a boring game. But yeah, its stupid to simply regard E.T. as the worst game ever because technically speaking there are many games that are worse or just as bad.

E.T. has long been considered a bad game and I feel that it does deserve that reputation. When it was originally released, very many people bought it/recieved it for Christmas and public opnion was overwhelmingly negative. Many units were returned because consumers thought the game was bad. I think its more accurate to consider E.T. to be the most notorious 'bad game', as well as the first bad game to recieve such a large amount of attention for being bad.

So some people returned the game, and Atari had to dispose of unsellable stock which included games other than E.T. as well. This just formed the opinion that E.T. was soo bad that Atari had to bury them in a landfill. This 'legend' just snowballed over time, and so you end up with a re-hashed public opinion of E.T. being the worst game ever.

Hydlide. Okay, I'm not gonna say that this is good or anything, but most critics don't seem to understand that it was made in 1984, and even then a lot of critics hold it up against games like Final Fantasy VII, somehow expecting an NES game to have in-depth cutscenes and artsiness.

The Sega Genesis sequel is awesome tho.

Yeah, people hate on Hydlide too much. For what it is its not a horrible game, and once you know what to do its an enjoyable challenge.
And the genesis sequel is awesome, i really like the music

[Emperor Megas]

I think I can agree with bbhood's take on the whole E.T. debacle.

[Mangar]

E.T is a terrible game. Anyone who says otherwise is just revising history and comparing it to other MORE terrible games. I say this as someone who also LOVED Raiders of the Lost Ark on the 2600. However, I agree that E.T is nowhere near the worst game of all time. Not even close to the worst on the 2600.

To understand why people consider E.T the worst game in history, you have to consider the time-frame. There's a legit hit movie in the theaters that was universally loved. The concept that a game based on such a great movie could be bad was unfathomable. There was no internet, or early reviews. So kids saved or bugged their parents, listened to the tons of hype, and when it was released - Over everything else, they got E.T. They could pick ONE game, and only ONE game. So they bring it home and...... Garbage. For many kids of the era, it was their first legit let-down or experience with a bad game. I mean, I saved all my Christmas money one year and spent it on Atari Pac-Man, and was actually "Ok" with it. E.T was just on another level of bad.

Worst of all time? No. But for a heavily anticipated and hyped game, that was purchased in large numbers - It was pretty damn terrible. Which is why it has that reputation.