Good God, this is just... awful. just... plain... awful. I felt raped playing this game. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on NES looks like God compared to this. The creators were probably rushed into making this thing, but that is just no excuse. Spielberg was an a-hole if he was thinking this could be GOOD. But no, his requirements were just impossible to meet, so it was Spielberg's fault for asking for WAY too much of Atari. Only if you paid me 350,000 Viz could you convince me to play this again.

The gameplay is very boring and tedious for one thing. All that you are doing is collecting telephone pieces. But you happen to be practically walking on swiss cheese because the ground is littered with holes, and the detection with those holes is broken. Every time you get 3 inches near a hole, it counts as falling into the hole, and it is nearly impossible to get out.

The sound quality is par with Atari standards, but it's too quiet, and there's barely any variety with them.

The control is responsive, but the holes plus the glitchy detection make your fingers take gymnastics school to maneuver around them.

Due to the glitches, the 2 persistent enemies (being the scientist and FBI agent), the holes, and the effort it takes to get out of and around them, the difficulty is extreme.

The worst part about the game is the part where you get all 3 telephone pieces. You have to go to the field and wait for a few seconds for your ship. But at the last second, the scientist comes out of nowhere and takes you away if you don't move quick enough. If she catches you, you have to START OVER THE SEARCH FOR THE PIECES ALL OVER AGAIN, because she'll take all your telephone pieces if you let her catch you.

That alone would make a game impossible to beat. This also goes back to the controls I mentioned earlier.

I just think that E.T. could've been better if Steve didn't set the super high expectations for Atari. I thought that E.T. could have been a halfway decent game, but no.

In conclusion, this game actually isn't the worst game in the history of the world as some people say. However, it is one of the worse games you could play.

The worst game in history, Period, but it is Atari, so it tried to make it good, but the game system kinda screwed it up, someone reviewed it and uploaded a video on it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMREImsJmuo&feature=relmfu

I personally think that Steven should've given the developer a little more time with the game. 

You know, to get the flaws ironed out first. This game just seemed unfinished to me.

Yes, this game is terrible... I tried to play it, I had to go to a mental institute until I could get over the fact that this game was so terrible. lol

The Creator(-S-) were rushed into making this game, you say?



There was only one guy Atari hired to make E.T. And I believe they only gave him 6 weeks to do it. Not only that, but I think he was paid 5 or 10 million bucks for it.



I wish I could make that much money in 6 weeks for making a P.O.S.

I'm not sure if it was Steven himself that headed the game; it was just the developers' fault. Just like some movie games today, it's not their fault that the port of the game is bad (though it is their fault for asking for a game).

Anyways, after reading your review, it's convinced me to play the game even less. I've heard terribly about this game already, so I don't think I'll pick it up for a long time. I'm guessing it's like the Superman 64 of the Atari. Both of that combined must be bad. xD

Well, good luck finding a game you like on Atari. Just hope it's not based on a movie.